Messenger of Death
by tmtcltb
Summary: Four years after the Nathan James' successful mission to the Arctic to obtain the primordial strain, only to return to Norfolk without a vaccine after locating no operational laboratories, the crew struggles to survive while Doctor Scott continues to work on a cure.
1. Memories

_Ch. 1 - Memories_

 _x_

The squeak woke him.

The one that Kara complained about every time she opened the door to the small hunting cabin. The one that Danny refused to fix. Because that sound was all he needed to be completely awake, gun up and ready to put a bullet in the intruder's chest. Next to him Kara lay perfectly still, arms cradled around three-year-old Frankie, but Danny knew that she was awake, prepared to duck and run if he gave the signal. The one that might come at any moment, signaling that the enemy had invaded their ranks and their current home, this camp deep in the Tennessee wilderness, was no longer safe. Two years may have passed since the last time that they were chased from their beds, but neither Danny or Kara would forget how quickly it all went bad, or how much they lost that night.

"Just me, Commander," came Wolf Taylor's distinctive Australian accent. Danny still felt uncomfortable with the title. The promotion earned not through skill but luck, the good fortune of not being dead.

"Next time knock." Danny lowered his weapon, swinging his legs off the side of the bed and reaching for the clothes that sat in a neat stack on the nightstand. When Smith mentioned this training camp, one long abandoned by the military, following the disaster in Virginia, it had seemed like a God-send. Somewhere for Doctor Scott to work on the cure, hidden from the Russians and Granderson and the Immunes. A safe place to regroup. But as the months turned into years, Danny began to see the camp less as a refuge than a prison, a castle under siege, giving them only the illusion of safety.

Wolf waited until Danny was done dressing. "We have visitors."

"I take it the Captain and XO are still gone?"

Both Captains Chandler and Slattery were off on supply missions. Captain Slattery's was the more critical, in Danny's view, an attempt to locate provisions to stock the shelves for the quickly approaching winter. Feeding twelve-hundred mouths was no joke, and there was no telling how many more would arrive in the coming months, hungry, ravaged by weather, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Captain Chandler's mission, on the other hand, was to locate some replacement equipment for Doctor Scott. At one time they would have dropped everything to make sure the Doctor Scott had what she needed for her work but, after four years of failure, Danny was not the only one who no longer believed it was possible to stop the Red Flu. All they could do was stay hidden, waiting for the day when the virus burned itself out, killing so many people that it had nowhere left to spread.

"Yes, sir."

"I'll be out in a minute." Waiting for Wolf to exit, Danny took a moment to rest his hand on his daughter's blonde curls, watching her chest rise and fall as she slumbered. Frankie was used to middle of the night interruption as one or both of her parents were called away. This world that seemed so foreign to Danny, one filed with so much chaos and uncertainty, being the only one that she had ever known. "You two stay safe."

But Kara must have sensed his inner turmoil, setting her hand on top of his before he could move. "We're not out yet, Danny. Eventually we will find a way to fight this."

Leaning over, Danny captured her lips in a quick kiss before he rose, knowing she wasn't fooled but unable to offer anything more. Not tonight, when the losses and failures of the past hung so heavy on his shoulders. Joining Wolf outside, Danny once again considered the strategic benefit of living in one of the small perimeter cabins rather than the main lodge. The cabin was larger, of course, and offered much more privacy but more importantly it was across the camp from the gate, giving them time to escape in case of an accidental breach. On the flip side, walking through the quiet cabins at this time of night, Danny was reminded how easily it would be for someone to sneak in and infect them with the virus, sentencing them to death before they even knew there was a problem.

"What are we looking at?" The late October air was crisp, reminding Danny of fall in Connecticut.

"Twenty-two survivors, about half children. None of them appear sick." The unspoken 'yet' hung between the two men.

"Okay, standard protocol." They stopped at the armory for Danny to grab the rest of his gear, the stuff Kara deemed too dangerous to keep at the cabin with a curious preschooler around. There was always the risk that he wouldn't have time to gather his equipment where they to leave in a hurry, but as with everything these days, it was a choice between bad and worse. There were never any good options.

Wolf waited for him to finish before speaking again. "People are planning a memorial for later today. Thought you should know."

Danny closed his eyes, doing his best to block out the memories of that night. The screams, the panic, the frantic searching in the darkness. And later, Kara's heartbreaking sobs when they figured out who had made it safely out – and who hadn't.

Not for the first time, Danny thanked his lucky stars that they ran into Wolf upon the Nathan James' return to Norfolk. Not only had the man saved his ass on multiple occasions, but he was also a good friend. Now that Danny knew what was going on, he could avoid the lodge, not wanting to see any of their pictures, eyes staring at him reproachfully, demanding to know why he didn't do more, why he didn't go back, why he let them die.

"Commander." Teylor Cruz nodded as Danny joined him and Walker in the small guard house, Wolf trailing behind him. Danny began the elaborate process of donning his hazmat suit. Not the flimsy ones they used originally, but ones commandeered from the CDC. Too late to help Smith or Morales, but standard for all out-of-gate trips now because of what happened to them.

"Our visitors giving you any trouble?" Danny asked.

About half the groups did. Yelling, swearing, trying to force their way through the gate. A few even brought guns. But those inside the gate had learned their lesson, the days of refusing to fire on civilians were long gone. Until those survivors were cleared by Doctor Scott, they were the enemy and were treated as such.

"Nope. Leader is a Marine. Seems to have them trained well," Teylor replied.

"Keep a bead on him," Danny replied, grabbing the CDC case and moving towards the first set of doors that would allow him outside. Power was a problem when they first arrived, especially with Doctor Scott needing her coolers running full time to protect the primordial strain. Fortunately, Chung came through, rigging a combination of solar and wind power, backed up by generators, which allowed them to keep both the lab and the decontamination room running.

It took roughly ten minutes before Danny emerged outside the wall, quickly taking in his surroundings. There was nothing unusual about the group itself, several armed adults around the perimeter, the children and a few women carrying small children in the middle, all of them regarding him warily. What was unusual was that Danny recognized the man striding towards him.

"Eddie?"

It took Eddie longer, his view obstructed by Danny's mask. "Danny? Danny Green? That really you?"

Eddie Ward. A friend from a different time, a different place, _a different life_ , but still a friend. And if Eddie was here, maybe there was hope for the others he left behind, for his parents and siblings. He had made his choice three years ago when the Nathan James docked in Norfolk after returning from the Arctic, the choice to remain with Kara and Frankie rather than join the group that left to search for their families. But there were times when he wondered what he might have found, when he envied those who had gone because, good news or bad, at least they knew, no longer haunted by the question.

Setting down the bright yellow case, Danny stretched out his hand despite Wolf's voice over the comm asking him what the hell he was doing. "It's me."

Eddie grasped his hand like a lifeline. "We heard it was safe here. We've been traveling all summer, avoiding the warlords, but winter is getting close and we can't go further south without running into that wacky cult. Think you could let us in? We can work. Farm, hunt, stand guard. Whatever you need."

The desperation in his voice clawed at Danny. Eddie saw the camp as a sanctuary, yet nowhere was really safe, the camp merely another illusion.

"Can't let anyone in without a blood draw. But once our doctors make sure you aren't infected, you are all welcome. We can always use more help, especially guys with training." And if Danny wasn't mistaken, based on the way these men were handling their weapons, Eddie was not the only one in his group who had a military past.

His announcement drew smiles, the slightly relaxation of the guards, the quick murmur of conversation, the group sure they were clear. It was a confidence Danny did not share. How many times had he seen this same happy reaction, only to learn that they were infected, unaware that they were already dead?

"How long will it take?" Eddie asked.

"I brought the equipment to do the blood draws now. This many people, we should know by the end of the day." Danny stopped, his eyes drawn to a woman standing in the middle of the group clutching a small boy. "Is that Amber?"

Eddie waved his wife to join them, the boy on her hip a mini version of his father. Danny swallowed. The boy was tiny, smaller than Frankie even though he was more than a year older. Was Tyler naturally small? Or was lack of food and medical care the reason for his diminutive size? Amber was crying, moving as though she meant to hug Danny, only to realize that his suit made it impossible.

"You have no idea how happy I am that we ran into that Navy captain. Is your family here?"

That was how most people found the camp, which was tucked in the middle of a wilderness preserve previously off-limits to all but the occasional bird watchers, deliberately hidden so there would not be too many questions about what the military was doing here. Danny guessed that Slattery was the one who sent them in this direction. The man had a weak spot for kids.

"My wife and daughter are. I haven't heard from anyone else from Cornwall. Do you know anything?"

Eddie shook his head. "We were in the Berkshires with Amber's family when the phone lines went down."

Amber's face dimmed at the thought, then brightened. "Daughter? How old?"

"Three. A year younger than Tyler." Danny's throat caught as he looked at the little boy clutching at his mother's shirt. "You look just like your daddy, young man. I bet you're as tough as he is too."

That drew a chuckle from Eddie, but one that was laced with sadness. "He's tougher."

The boy buried his head in his mother's shoulder, the sight of Danny's suit no doubt terrifying. "That's why we have to be so careful about letting people in. The kids."

"We understand. We do." Eddie was smiling but the strain was back. The desperation. Maybe he really did understand, maybe not, but the rules were the rules and Danny wasn't going to bend them for anyone. "I'll go first."

It took almost an hour to collect the swabs, hampered as Danny was by the suit. He stopped next to Eddie, holding out his hand once again. "There's food, water, blankets and some other supplies next to the door. Just wait for me to get through before you start distributing them. I'll let you know once I get the results."

"Thank you, thank you, Danny." It was Amber, tears of joy in her eyes.

Danny wondered if his eyes reflected his guilt, knowing that if these results came back positive for the Red Flu, he would never come this close to Eddie or Amber or Tyler again. He would tell them the news from the safety of the guard booth, ignoring their denials, ignoring their pleas, ignoring their cries, ignoring the fact that these were his friends, simply waiting for them to die.

Because better twenty-two dead people outside the camp than twelve-hundred dead people inside it.

The trip back to the gate felt like a lifetime, the ten minutes through decontamination another one, before he emerged on the other side where Kara, rather than Cruz, waited for him. She took the box of samples, passing them to Walker to deliver to Doctor Scott who, despite the hour, was no doubt already in her lab, alerted to the new arrivals by someone at the camp.

"Where's Frankie?"

Seeing Kara here made him twitchy, the compulsion to know where his daughter was almost overpowering. When Frankie was little, Kara would strap the little girl to her body when she left their room, so Danny never needed to worry about the two being separated in an emergency, never needed to consider the horrifying possibility of Frankie being left behind if containment was breached. But as Frankie grew older and more mobile, that arrangement worked less and less, requiring them to rely on a small circle of people to take care of their daughter. People they could trust with Frankie's life should something happen while Danny and Kara were both gone.

It was a short list.

"With Carlton and Ravit," Kara explained as she helped him remove his hazmat suit. Danny felt his anxiety ebb. Frankie would be safe there. "Wolf said you know some of the arrivals."

 _Of course he did._ There were times when Wolf's inability to mind his own business got annoying.

"A childhood friend. Guy named Eddie Ward. I've mentioned him before."

"I remember. You grew up together. A Marine, right?"

Danny's eyes closed as the memories flooded him. Images of he and Eddie playing Little League, riding bikes to the penny store, getting drunk at Eddie's bachelor party, smoking cigars to celebrate Tyler's impending arrival, each memory a reminder of what a good guy – a good friend – Eddie had always been. _A_ _friend that Danny might have to watch die._ "That's the guy. He's here with his wife and son."

"How old?" The question was quiet. The children got to all of them.

"Four."

The way her breath hitched, her eyes falling closed for a second, told him she was just as affected as he was, but Kara caught herself, her arm threading through his, directing him outside. "We won't know for a few hours. Let's go home."

The walk to the cabin was silent. Once there, Kara helped him strip down, following him under the covers, cuddling up next to him in the now-cold bed. But when her hands slid under his t-shirt, he moved to stop her.

"No condoms," he reminded her, no need to point out that her last birth control shot was well more than three months ago. She knew. There was just nothing she could do about it. No matter how much Captain Chandler prioritized birth control – and he had since the rash of unplanned pregnancies in year one – there was never enough to go around.

But Kara didn't stop, maneuvering his shirt over his head before pulling off her own shirt, letting it flutter to the floor as she straddled him. "We'll have to risk it."

"What would we do with a baby?"

Kara didn't hesitate. "Love it, just like we love Frankie."

The words caught in his chest, making it hard to breathe. "I don't know if I can. I don't know if I have anything left to give."

"But I know that you do." She cupped his face, her lips laying butterfly kisses on his forehead, his cheeks, his lips, kissing away the tears that he could no longer hold back. "None of this is your fault, Danny. Not tonight. Not last week. Not two years ago. None of it."

And just like that the damn broke, the tears turning into sobs – sobs of pain, of guilt, of loss, and of hopelessness. And then, almost inevitably, the grief turned into an overpowering need to hold her, to kiss her, to touch her, to reassure himself that he was still alive, that he wasn't alone, that he still had Kara and Frankie.

Desperate to have a minute of peace before the next knock came, and he found out whether he would, once again, serve as the messenger of death.


	2. Golden Curls

_Ch. 2 – Golden Curls_

 _x_

The sunlight streaming through the window woke him.

Danny's first act was to reach across the bed, hunting for Kara and Frankie, but the sheets were once again cold. A glance at his watch told him why. It was already 0814. Kara would be at the modified command center by now. A rustling sound caught Danny's attention and he picked up the small slip of paper.

 _On shift. F's with R for the day._

She knew, of course. Kara knew that he would panic when he woke up alone, his mind instantly going to another place, another time, those days in Baltimore, back before they understood just how bad things had gotten here on land. _Three days of wondering whether he would ever see her again, whether he would ever meet his daughter. Three days of holding his breath every time they located another corpse. Three days of promising himself and God and anyone else who would listen that, if he just got her back, he would never let her out of his sight again._

Throwing off the covers, Danny dressed in his clothes from the night before, ignoring the wrinkles. At times he wondered why they bothered with the uniforms at all. Half of the guards were now civilians – or, at least, they had been civilians in their past lives, the ones that ended the day the Red Flu jumped to phase six and became a full global pandemic. But it was one of the many traditions that they clung to, an attempt to keep a semblance of order in a world that was no longer recognizable.

Danny swung his vest over his shoulder, heading towards Burk's cabin, surprised to see Carlton standing in the doorway, coffee cup in hand. Usually he and Kara worked the same shift, a pattern that Danny and Carlton had fallen into back in the early days when Kara was pregnant and the list of people that Danny trusted to look out for her in an emergency was about three people long – himself included.

"Daddy!" Frankie catapulted herself out of the cabin, heedless of the steps, and into her father's arms.

Dropping his vest, he hugged the child against him, breathing in the sweet baby scent that clung to her no matter how filthy she was. Danny had never been so aware of the importance of readily available water until he had a small child. Despite Kara's best efforts, Frankie's fingernails were a permanent shade of brown and her curls a perpetual mess. Even now the sun was glinting off several grains of sand clinging to Frankie's skull. "Hey pumpkin. You have a good sleepover with Auntie Ravit?"

Curls bounced as the little girl nodded enthusiastically. "Uncle Carlton made us spaceship pancakes!"

"Millennium Falcon, kid. It was the Millennium Falcon," Carlton corrected ruefully.

Ravit appeared next to her husband in the doorway, a hand resting on her rounded belly as she listened to Frankie chatter about pancakes and spaceships. Even now, months after Carlton made the announcement, Danny still found it baffling. Carlton and Ravit had actually _chosen_ to bring a child into this hellhole. _Deliberately_. Going so far as to ask Captain Chandler's permission in advance. Not that Danny didn't love his daughter with every fiber of his being – hell, he would kill anyone who suggested otherwise – but deep in the recesses of his heart, Danny knew that if he could go back, Frankie wouldn't exist today. Because raising a child in this world, struggling to survive day-by-day, was no kind of life.

 _Frankie deserved so much more._

He had actually asked Carlton once, one night when they had both had a little too much to drink.

" _Why in God's name would you want to bring a child into this world?" Danny demanded, knowing even as the slurred words spilled out of his mouth that he was crossing a line, saying things that shouldn't be said, and couldn't be unsaid._

 _Yet, as insulting as the question was, Carlton didn't hesitate. "Because I believe that things are going to get better. I believe that Doctor Scott's going to do it. I believe that there is a future."_

 _Danny stared at his best friend, a man he trusted to watch his child, to protect his wife, to guard his backside no matter the circumstances and wondered if he knew him at all. "God, I wish I was still that gullible."_

Later Danny had apologized but Carlton had brushed him off.

 _"Someday you'll_ _see that I'm right. Then you can apologize."_

"How are you feeling?" Danny asked Ravit, noticing her hand shifting to her back. He remembered Kara doing that, towards the end of her pregnancy. Of course, back then they were moving once or twice a week, one temporary camp to another, the almost daily hikes putting constant strain on Kara's small frame and probably contributing to Frankie's early arrival. That was an experience nobody wanted to repeat. Immediately upon learning she was pregnant, Ravit was transferred to instructor status, going no further than the compound walls.

"It's getting a bit tougher to chase that one around," Ravit replied, nodding towards Frankie. "We're going to the children's center to meet up with Mrs. Dowler's preschool class for the memorial."

Ravit waited patiently, knowing that Danny wanted to object, to demand that she keep Frankie here where it was safe. Where she wasn't surrounded by other children and their germs. The argument wasn't new, and it was one that Danny always lost. While Kara was willing to tolerate many of his protective instincts, she drew the line at segregating their daughter from other children, insisting that preschool was important. That Frankie needed to spend time with other children. That she deserved to have as normal of a life as they could give her. And Kara was right about one thing, Frankie loved preschool, chattering endlessly about her teacher and coming home with colorful paintings and strings of macaroni – the one item of food that they never seemed to run out of.

So instead of giving Ravit the answer that he wanted, Danny simply nodded. "You'll stay with her there?"

"She always does, Green, you know that," Carlton interrupted, but neither Danny nor Ravit paid any attention to him. Unlike Carlton or Wolf or even Kara, who would roll her eyes and call him paranoid under her breath even as she agreed to whatever protective measure he was proposing, Ravit never questioned Danny's vigilance. She once told him that life in the camp wasn't that different from her childhood on the West Bank, a parallel that Danny found strangely comforting. After all, Ravit turned out just fine.

Ravit nodded, her eyes solemn. _A promise._ Nothing would happen to Frankie. "Of course."

"You on duty?" Danny asked Carlton.

"Just waiting on you. Nishioka offered to stay late so I could have breakfast with the girls." In other words, Carlton wanted to talk to Danny before they got to the command center. Carlton disappeared for a moment, presumably to deal with his coffee cup. Ravit was not the kind of woman you handed your dirty dishes to on the way out the door with a kiss and a smile.

"You have fun with Mrs. Dowler." Danny gave Frankie another squeeze, kissing her soft cheek, then set her down. He waited, watching until the last golden curl disappeared behind the closing door. He could never look away until she was actually gone, always wondering if this was the last time that he would see her, whether this would be his final memory of his daughter.

The second the door closed, he turned to Carlton, pulling his vest over his head. "Any word from Doctor Scott?"

"Nothing yet." They both knew what that meant. Quick results were good. Slow results meant she was double-checking, hoping that she was wrong, before she passed along the word. _Infected_. "I heard you know some of them."

Danny ground his teeth, walking swiftly towards the armory, the familiarity of the routine exhausting him. "Buddy from my hometown. With his wife and kid."

"I can tell them if you want."

"No, I need to do it."

Just as Danny had known that Carlton would make the offer, Carlton knew that Danny would decline. They knew because, when the situation was reversed and Carlton had been faced with delivering the worst news imaginable to his cousin, Danny had made the same offer. And Carlton had made the same response.

 _And yet, somehow, Carlton still had hope._

Rather than stopping by the lab, Danny headed towards the command center. He knew that he was simply delaying the inevitable, but he wasn't ready to face one of his oldest friends and tell him that his son was going to die. Stepping through the door, Danny was amused by how quickly the personnel snapped to attention. They all looked so much younger than they used to - or maybe he was just that much older. A glance around the room told him that Kara wasn't here, most likely in the lodge liaising with the civilian representatives, a task that took up the bulk of her time these days and would be especially pressing today because of the memorial. At least she and Frankie would be in the same place. "Report."

"Everything is in order, Commander," Lieutenant Nishioka replied. Danny nodded towards Carl. Although he wasn't friends with the man – they did not have a single thing in common besides the Navy, as far as Danny could tell – he ran a tight ship. If Nishioka said everything was in order, there was nothing to worry about.

"Any word from Captains Chandler or Slattery?"

"Tiger team checked in an hour ago. They're on their way back with supplies, including the items that Doctor Scott requested, sir." Danny poured himself a cup of coffee as he listened, grimacing when he took a sip of the weak blend. Luckily Slattery was a coffee snob. He wouldn't be coming back without something decent. "No word from Captain Chandler. But given his mission..."

"He may be out of range," Danny finished, knowing the script by heart. Most of the supplies that Doctor Scott required could be found at any hospital but new equipment was an entirely different matter, usually necessitating a trip to a CDC facility. Assuming they could find one that the Immunes hadn't destroyed.

"Permission to enter?" A soft, lilting voice spoke from the doorway.

"Of course, Mrs. Chandler." Danny watched the petite blonde enter the room, carrying a tray of muffins, the scent of blueberry tickling his nose. Darien Chandler was the consummate Navy wife, never missing an opportunity to stop by with food or coffee, giving what encouragement she could. The woman must be worried about her husband, who had been gone for over a week now, but you would never know if from her demeanor. She would have made an excellent poker player.

Unfortunately, Daren Chandler's timing was piss-poor, as she had barely set down the tray when Doctor Scott breezed through the door with her usual lack of protocol. "Commander Green! I need to talk to you immediately."

"Of course you do," Danny sighed, pretending that his stomach wasn't growling as the muffins began disappearing. He probably should have asked Carlton in there were any more pancakes. Lunch felt like a long time away.

Luckily, Doctor Scott ignored his attitude – if she noticed it at all. The woman was nothing if not focused. _Four years_. Four years of failure, and yet the woman remained as committed as ever. Danny equally admired her passion, and wondered whether she was a little off her rocker. Of course, that last could be said of any of them.

"Only two of their tests came back positive," Doctor Scott continued, slapping a file and CDC case down on the table in front of Danny. "It may still be possible to save the rest of them. I've made some modification to the vaccine. I'm fairly confident this time."

 _Just like she was last time, and the time before, and the time before that._ This would be the twenty-third trial and every single one had failed.

Danny took a sip of his coffee, contemplating the file before him. The one with the test results. There had been a time, back at the beginning, when he would have done anything to help this woman. Back when he believed that it was possible to stop this. He had actually volunteered for the first trial, only to be turned down because of a cold. The luckiest break of his life.

 _Russ Jeter, Andrea Garnett, Erik Miller, Maya Gibbs, Steve Berchem, Katie Bell._

Six volunteers. All dead. Dying in the most painful way possible. The second time Doctor Scott settled for four volunteers.

 _Stanley Lynn, Jeremy Wright, Nina Mir, Michelle Marks._

New group, new vaccine, but the same result.

That's when Doctor Scott came up with a new method to test her trial vaccines, and when Danny gained a new job. It was simple really. Wait until they ran across an infected group. Not all infected, of course, but enough for the rest to be at risk of exposure. Tell them that they might have been exposed. Then offer them hope in the form of a vaccine. They were all suspicious at first, but eventually someone would cough or get a sore throat and fear would win out. They would all agree to try the vaccine.

It never worked.

There were times when Danny wondered who he was now. Wondered what happened to the naïve young man who set sail for the Arctic all those years ago. The one who saw a pretty girl and pursued her relentlessly, without any regard for the frat rules. The one who cried happy tears when he found out that he was going to be a father, despite the terrible timing. The one who insisted on a formal wedding, complete with dress uniforms and a diamond ring, because he was only going to do this once and he wanted to do it right. Picking up the file, Danny braced himself before looking at the names of the infected.

 _Jocelyn Kemper_. _Richard Ermer._

A flash of relief. Two of the other men, the guards. Probably exposed when gathering supplies. Neither had noticeable symptoms when Danny drew their blood five hours ago, leaving a chance that Eddie and Amber and Tyler hadn't been exposed. Danny reached for the case but Doctor Scott stopped him, biting down on her lip in an uncharacteristically hesitant manner. He narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"I ran out of ethanol. I only had enough to make eighteen doses," Doctor Scott explained.

 _Eighteen doses for twenty-two people_. Danny took a deep breath, closing his eyes. There were moments when he wondered what kind of monster he must have been in a past life to deserve this.

"Sending out eighteen doses is asking for a riot." Carlton crossed his arms across his chest.

"I am aware of the problem, Lieutenant," Doctor Scott said tartly, popping the case open to reveal twenty-two vials of light blue liquid. "That's why I included four vials with a placebo."

Danny looked down at the identical rows. "Which are the inactive ones?"

The doctor hesitated. "I wasn't sure you would want to know."

 _And he didn't_. He didn't want that knowledge or that responsibility, but that didn't change the facts. He needed to know. He couldn't waste a possibly life-saving dose on someone who was already dead or accidentally give a placebo to a kid. Doctor Scott grabbed a pen, placing blue dots on the top of four vials, before handing the case to Danny.

Backtracking to grab a muffin – if this was going to be his last meal, it might as well be a good one – Danny nodded towards Carlton. "You're in charge."

"Take Taylor with you."

At the door Danny hesitated, remembering the flash of Frankie's hair as she disappeared into the cabin, before looking back at Carlton. "If anything happens…"

"I'll take care of them. I promise."


	3. Grilled Corn

_Ch. 3 – Grilled Corn_

 _x_

Twenty-two sets of eyes fastened on Danny the moment he stepped through the gate. Even the children looked, driven by instinct to take note of anything that caught the attention of the adults around them. There was a moment of collective relief that the wait was over. Then Danny's attire sunk in, his hazmat suit telling the group everything they needed to know about the results of the blood draws. _They were infected._

"Everyone ten feet apart right now!" The group was splitting before Eddie finished speaking, spreading themselves across the small clearing near the entrance to the camp. The immediacy of their response, their coordination with only the barest of direction, was a stark reminder of life outside the walls of the camp. These people had done this before, a technique learned through trial-and-error in a world where error meant death. Eddie raised a hand, instructing the group to remain still as he approached Danny. "How bad?"

There was no reason to mince words. It was obvious that Eddie knew what was coming. "Two tests were positive."

Eddie's eyes blinked closed and then opened. "Who?"

 _Hell. He belonged in hell for what he was about to do._ But the truth was dangerous, people's response to their own mortality difficult to predict. It was a lesson that Danny had learned through trial-and-error himself, an error in judgment that cost Jason Smith his life in a situation much like this. One small tear in his hazmat suit was all it took, the Marine felled by a woman old enough to be his grandmother. Her diamond ring catching his suit when she threw herself at Smith, begging him to tell her that it wasn't true, that she wasn't infected, that she wasn't going to die. That was the reason for the thicker suits, for the armed guards, for the open com. Because dying people had nothing to lose. Danny held Eddie's gaze. "I can't tell you who is infected."

"But you know."

Danny opened his mouth to lie but found that he couldn't. "Yes."

A flash of anger, a tightening of his jaw, but Eddie managed to reign in his temper. "Amber and Tyler?"

"I would tell you if it was them, Eddie," Danny replied, his voice softening a fraction. He wondered if it was the truth, or another one of the platitudes that he had learned to offer in order to keep people calm.

Eddie stared at Danny before his eyes flickered to Wolf, standing next to the doorway. Like Danny, he was in hazmat gear. Unlike Danny, he was fully armed and Eddie, as a Marine who served two tours, understood the signal that Wolf's presence sent. Wolf would not hesitate to use force, even lethal force, if necessary to protect those inside the camp. "You didn't come out here to tell us about the test results. You could have done that from inside. Why are you here?"

Danny looked down at the yellow case he held in his left hand. _Twenty-one times._ Twenty-one times he had given this speech, made this appeal. _Each time stealing another piece of his soul._

Not all of them died, of course. At first Doctor Scott thought it was simply luck, the capriciousness of a virus that allowed one person to live while sentencing the person next to him to die. It wasn't until Deer Park that she figured out there was more to survival than pure chance. The news that Christine Slattery and her daughters had been exposed was crushing, the only time Danny saw Captain Slattery cry. But three days later – three never-ending days of watching everyone around them, including their mother, fall sick and die – Whitney and Shaylyn Slattery were still alive. _Immunity._ Doctor Scott had been euphoric when she delivered the news that the girls, and their father, were immune, certain that this chance discovery was the final piece that she needed to develop a vaccine. And for a moment Danny believed it too, until the next group died the same horrible death as the group before.

But it wasn't just those who possessed immunity who survived anymore. As time passed and the survivors became fewer, they also became smarter. Avoiding populated areas. Avoiding small spaces where bodies might be hiding. Avoiding other people. Sleeping outside rather than in tents. The simple task of picking up a child, as Danny had done with Frankie that morning, a luxury as people kept their distance, even within tight-knit group. Because that distance sometimes made the difference between life and death.

 _Something that Eddie already knew._

"Our doctors have been working on a vaccine. It's experimental. But it's supposed to prevent infection in those who haven't been exposed yet," Danny offered. Not a lie, not exactly, but not the truth either, not the whole truth. Or maybe Danny had told so many lies that he no longer recognized the difference. There was a long pause as Eddie stared, his eyes burning into Danny as though he could read his soul. As though he knew every lie that Danny had told over the past three-and-a-half years, every omission, every false smile. Danny struggled to hold Eddie's gaze. He couldn't let Eddie know that this was a script. That he no longer believed a word that he was saying. When the silence stretched too long Danny dropped his voice, realizing that every person present was straining to hear him. "Take it, Eddie. It's your best chance."

"Amber!" Eddie's voice crackled in the still autumn air. She approached cautiously, making care to keep her distance, Tyler clutched to her chest in an all too familiar manner. Danny recognized the look on her face, the one of a mother willing to do anything to save her child. That was the reason that Danny's offer always worked. False hope was better than no hope when it came to one's child. "They have a vaccine."

Glancing back at Wolf, Danny nodded. Today, at least, there would be no need beat a hasty retreat or call on backup.

Danny set the case on the ground, loading the first vial into the dispenser. Amber waited, her body trembling. Danny didn't meet her eyes, not wanting to see her fear or the tears that she was fighting back for Tyler's sake. Amber pulled up the sleeve of Tyler's blue and yellow jacket, the boy's stick-thin arm making Frankie look fat by comparison. Her voice was soft, soothing. "Just a little prick, baby. So you won't get sick."

"Actually, I need two. One is the vaccine and the other is another blood sample." _Hell. He was definitely going to hell_. The child was dying and Danny was poking him. Once for a vaccine that wouldn't work, and once to add to Doctor Scott's collection of pointless research.

As gentle as Danny tried to be, Tyler cried out, burying his head in his mother's neck when the needle slid home, followed quickly by the blood draw. Amber took a moment to comfort her child before holding out her own arm, one equally thin, pale and bruised. She offered Danny a crooked smile. "Sorry about that. He obviously doesn't like shots."

"Frankie is worse," Danny commented thoughtlessly as he pulled out another vial and slid the needle into Amber's arm. "Pouts for hours afterwards. Kara bribes her with lollipops before a checkup."

"Tyler was too young when, when it happened. This is his first shot," Amber explained and Danny could have kicked himself. Food, clothes, medical care. Whatever Frankie or Sam or Shaylyn or any of the children needed always went to the top of the supply list. It was human nature, putting the young first. But all six of the children in this group were too small, too quiet, too subdued. Because when there was nothing to eat, not even the children were spared.

"Next time I'll bring a lollipop." Danny waited for Amber to retreat before glancing at Eddie, who was standing the appropriate distance away, arms folded over his chest, his sharp gaze following every move that Danny made. "Your turn."

Eddie shook his head. "Kids first."

Danny was fourteen doses in when it happened. Eddie waved to a man on the perimeter, holding a rifle. "Rich, you're up."

Danny's hand froze, hovering above the vials. Richard was a common enough name. This wasn't necessarily the man. _But it could be_. In a group this size, it probably way. Decision made, Danny's hand moved to the last vial, one dotted in blue, slipping it into the dispenser. Forcing himself to smile at the man as though nothing were wrong.

 _As though he didn't know that the man was already dead._

Four more active doses for seven more people. Three more doses before another name that Danny recognized. _Jocelyn._ This time Danny's hand moved to the end of the row without hesitation.

Leaving a single active dose.

And the man approaching wasn't Eddie.

Eddie was leaving himself for last. Like a good leader, one who cared about his people. _It was something that Captain Chandler would do._ Danny found his hand hovering over the vials. He didn't believe anymore, couldn't believe, only to have that belief crushed once again. Yet some spark of hope must have remained because Danny wanted to give that dose to Eddie. He moved to the end of the case, picking up an inactive dose.

"Rob's a good man. That's his wife over there. His girls. He deserves a chance." The words were quiet, meant for Danny's ears only, Eddie moving until he stood only an arm's length away. Danny's eyes flew up, convinced he must have misheard, but Eddie's lips were twisted in a familiar crooked smile. The same one Eddie used to give him back when Danny was captain of the soccer team and Eddie was the player with two left feet who had never made a goal. Eddie used to bench himself so that Danny wouldn't need to, always putting the team first.

But this wasn't a soccer game. And they weren't teenagers.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"I know you better than that," Eddie replied quietly. "You only skipped to the end twice. Two infected people. And the blue dots were kind of a giveaway. You shouldn't have marked them. But I guess you probably did that on purpose. Wouldn't want to accidentally give one to a kid."

Wolf step closer, although he couldn't hear Eddie's words the break in routine enough to cause concern. Danny stayed him with a single motion. "We didn't have enough for everybody."

"Green, what the _hell_ are you doing..." Danny snapped off his com. He would deal with Carlton once he was back inside.

Eddie's expression softened. "Let me make the choice this time, Danny. Give it to Rob. I'll take my chances."

 _This time._ A chill ran through Danny. He had underestimated Eddie, unintentionally revealing too much. A mistake that could have easily proven fatal. For Danny, for Wolf, for Kara and Frankie, for every single person inside those walls. Keeping his eyes on Eddie, Danny slid the last active dose into the dispenser, beckoning for Rob to approach as Eddie stepped back. It was done quickly, before Danny could change his mind, the last active dose disappearing. One more man, unlucky enough to be second-to-last, and then there was only Eddie, standing in front of Danny, rolling up his sleeve.

Another crooked smile. "We have to make it look good. For Amber. She is a red-head, after all. I don't want to spend my last hours being screamed at."

The teasing tone, so familiar and yet so strange, the comment about Amber's hair bringing back memories of another time. _Another life._ Danny swallowed, hand trembling as he dispensed the useless fluid. "You're a better man than me, Eddie. You always were."

Eddie chuckled. "What I wouldn't give to have Waldron hear you say that." _Waldron._ Another name from the past. Another friend who was no doubt dead. Eddie rolled his sleeve back down. "You need to go right away?"

Danny knew exactly what Carlton would think about his answer – g _et in and out, Green_ – but he said it anyway. "I can stay for a few."

Eddie's eyes strayed to his wife and son, the ones he was dutifully staying ten feet away from. "What's it like in there?"

 _Like a maximum security prison, like a home for the terminally ill, like a unit preparing for a suicide mission._

"There's a preschool." The words were forced. "Frankie goes there. She paints things that look like blobs of yellow and claims they're pictures of me. Kara hangs them up on the walls."

Eddie chuckled. "School. Amber will like that. She works with Tyler on his letters and numbers, you know. But we haven't seen a working school in years. It sounds so...normal."

 _Thirteen-year-olds learning to cook with tubs of expired peanut butter and stale MREs, fifteen-year-olds figuring out how many plants could be grown per foot, seventeen-years-olds serving guard duty, already adults in every way that mattered._

"In the summer we grow our own vegetables. Got some pumpkins this year. Lots of tomatoes and cucumbers. Some peas. And sweet corn." For an instant, Danny was back in Connecticut with Eddie and Waldron and Tom, throwing a pile of fresh corn on the grill on a hot summer night, slathering it with butter and salt before devouring piece after piece. "My wife was raised in Kansas. She was horrified to learn that we grilled our corn."

"Amber was pretty skeptical the first time I did that too. But I converted her. No other way to go." Eddie rubbed his arm absently. "You have a generator in there?"

 _Lights that they used as little as possible, the effort of keeping the camp hidden a never-ending struggle. But all it would take was one Ramsey believer finding them, one piece of infected clothing getting inside, and it was all over. Everything that they had built gone in an instant. Again._

"Limited but enough to run critical equipment and even have the occasional movie night." Not that Danny ever went to the films. Kara did sometimes, usually with Carlton while Danny and Ravit stayed back with Frankie. Carlton was a movie buff, able to quote pretty much every action flick – and a few date movies – by heart. Ravit, on the other hand, preferred a good game of chess. Wolf sometimes joked that if they ever got the internet back and looked up the term 'opposites attract' that there would be a picture of Carlton and Ravit underneath. "The camp has a well, so plenty of water."

 _Not that it mattered. The septic tank failed for the first time six months after they arrived from lack of maintenance and overuse. That's when Captain Chandler instituted the five-minute, once-a-week shower rule, decontamination being the only exception._

"Your man is signaling you." Eddie gestured behind Danny.

When Danny turned, Wolf was no longer alone. Apparently Carlton was tired of being ignored and had sent Colin out to make his point, the eighteen-year-old no doubt terrified at being this close to the infected even with the protection of a hazmat suit. Danny reached his hand out to Eddie, just as he had the last time. "I'll be back later."

Eddie shook his head, leaving his hands by his side. "Go. Do your job Danny. Take care of your people. And God bless."

Danny forced his lips to curl. "You too."

 _Too bad he no longer believed in God._


	4. Photographs

_Ch. 4 - Photographs_

 _x_

Through his entire two minutes shower Danny swore he could hear a woman laughing, the disembodied sound driving him to distraction. He couldn't picture either Wolf or Colin giggling like a girl and, even if he could, there was nothing about the decontamination process - the kind that blasted water and antiseptic soap at you hard enough to kill any virus germs that might have been carried inside, taking off a fair amount of skin in the process - that was conductive to laughter. So either the sound was coming from Ray Diaz, who was in the guard station, or, rather more alarming, Danny was beginning to hear voices.

Tucking his shirt in, Danny stepped through the door to the guard station, relief that he was not certifiable warring with annoyance at the scene before him.

Eighteen-year-old Kat Nolan sat on a desk, foot swinging as she smiled at her twenty-year-old boyfriend. Beside her Ray was paying no attention to the monitors he was supposed to be watching or the door that Danny was walking through, too busy tucking a stray curl behind Kat's ear, causing her to giggle. His face settling into a scowl, Danny felt like an eighty-year-old curmudgeon. At one time he would have found it amusing to watch Ray chase after Kat, the tough military brat drawn both to Kat's physical attractions (something that Danny attempted not to notice as it made him feel like a creeper) and her free-spirited and upbeat personality. But now all Danny could see was the risk posed by Ray's crush on Kat, risks far more severe than a charge of dereliction of duty.

Danny slammed the door closed behind him, watching the two spring apart, Ray's back going ramrod straight. "Commander. We were just..."

"I can see what you were doing," Danny interrupted, tone harsher than he planned. If there was one thing that Danny had learned in over the years, it was that berating someone was rarely effective. Ray was well aware of his shortcomings. Channeling Captain Chandler, Danny forced himself to moderate his voice. "Did you need something, Kat?"

Kat jumped down from the desk, flashing her usual sunny smile in Danny's direction, far less cowed than Ray. Of course, unlike Ray, Kat was not in the process of neglecting her duties. "Doctor Scott asked me to come by and collect the samples from you."

In other words, Doctor Scott was pissed that Danny took so long. The woman was not exactly known for her patience.

"Here you go." Danny passed the yellow case to the teenager, once again considering the unlikely chance that brought Kat, Ray, Colin, and fourteen other teenagers from a summer camp in Alabama to the middle of the Tennessee wilderness.

They had simply appeared at the gate one afternoon a few months after the Nathan James crew arrived, a bunch of kids the first and only group to stumble upon this camp out in the middle of nowhere. Suspicious of an Immune trap, Captain Slattery had been reluctant to admit them at first. Kat was the one who convinced him that they had nothing to do with the Ramseys. According to the girl, her dad called her from somewhere - she wasn't sure where but the connection was bad - right before the phone lines went down and told her to meet him here if he didn't find her first.

Although the story explained how these kids knew about the camp, it raised the question of who Ken Nolan was - and how he knew about a secret military training facility closed twenty years before. Smith was dead by then, so too late to ask him if he knew a Nolan, and nobody else recognized the name, leaving them with more questions than answers. Was the man former special operations? Had he worked or trained here? Why hadn't the man himself appeared, something that Kat was still convinced was just a matter of time? And, if both Ken Nolan and Jason Smith knew about this place, how many other people did as well? For months Captain Chandler doubled the guards, expecting more arrivals, but nothing happened and, like every threat they faced, the concern eventually faded to the background. Never entirely disappearing, but eclipsed by more pressing concerns.

"I passed Kara on my way here. She was headed to the lodge with Mrs. Allen." Kat paused, head tipped to the side as she considered Danny. "I can't make the memorial service but will you let Kara know that I'm thinking about her?"

Ignoring a surge of guilt - he had no intention of appearing at the memorial himself - Danny nodded. "Of course."

With a saucy smile for Ray, Kat ducked out the door, leaving the two men alone until Wolf's shower was finished. Danny narrowed his eyes at Ray, who looked appropriately embarrassed. "Do you need a refresher course on the purpose of guard duty, Seaman Diaz?"

 _Such an odd was to describe a man who had never been on a Naval vessel._ Heck, apparently Ray had never even been out on the ocean in any vessel, having such a weak stomach that he got seasick sailing on a lake.

"No, sir. It won't happen again." Diaz promised. And he probably meant every word. But the next time that Kat walked by, Danny knew that Ray's attention would waver. A pandemic was nothing compared to raging teenage hormones.

"You can make up for it by pulling a double-shift." He studied the young man. "I assume that you have put yourself on Captain Slattery's list."

Ray's face flamed at the mention of this particular list, the one for birth control. "Yes, sir."

Behind them the shower door opened to admit Wolf and, with a nod of his head, Danny exited the guard station. It was a brisk four minute walk back to the command center. Mercifully Carlton restrained himself from launching into the lecture that was no doubt on the tip of his tongue, the one reminding Danny that the protocols for handling infected groups were in place for a reason and that, think what he might, none of them were invincible. It was a lecture that Danny knew well. One that he had given more times than he could recall, most likely the reason that Carlton didn't bother saying anything. Danny already knew exactly what he did wrong.

 _He just couldn't bring himself to care._

Three hours passed slowly, Danny's eyes wandering to the clock every few minutes, wondering when the news would come. The virus advanced quickly, fevers and coughs beginning within twenty-four hours of exposure. The two men known to be infected were beginning to show symptoms, as expected, but the real question was whether anyone in the group managed to avoid exposure. And the only way to figure that out was to watch who got sick, and who didn't. Danny was about to call for an update when the door opened to admit Ravit, who waddled across the room towards him and Carlton.

Before Danny could ask the question, Ravit held up her hand. "Frankie is with Kara. Mrs. Allen wants to know if you'll be at the memorial ceremony. I told her that I would convey the message."

 _Not a chance in hell._ Not that Mrs. Allen, the chairperson for the camp's elected board of representatives, would take the news well. Luckily he had a perfectly reasonable excuse. "No. Not with the situation outside the gate."

"Which I can monitor," Carlton replied. "They're expecting us to send someone. Captain Chandler went last year. If Captain Slattery was back, he'd go."

Danny wondered whether Slattery deliberately delayed his arrival to avoid the memorial, the type of civilian affair that Slattery hated almost as much as the virus that stole his wife and son.

"Then you go," Danny retorted. Carlton and Ravit were his friends. They shouldn't be forcing him into this position. They should understand why he couldn't go.

Carlton raised an eyebrow. "You're the ranking officer. She'll complain to Captain Chandler if you send someone else. "

Ravit regarded Danny steadily, the way she always did when she was about to put him on his ass. "Kara shouldn't have to do this alone."

Danny clenched his teeth. He expected this type of behavior from Carlton, the man's natural optimism leading him to push Danny into doing things that _would be good for him_. But Ravit, Ravit was supposed to understand. _None of this mattered. It was all just a show, a game they all played pretending that everything was okay._ " _Fine._ But let me know immediately if anything changes."

He dragged his feet on the way the armory to remove and lock up his gear before following the path towards the lodge. He paused outside, studying the missing tiles on the roof and peeling paint, signs of twenty years of neglect. The paint could be ignored now that Doctor Scott confirmed that it wasn't full of lead. The roof, on the other hand, would need to be dealt with before the snow fell. Hopefully Slattery had located some replacement tiles or else they would have to send out another team.

Entering the lodge itself, Danny paused at the doorway, eyes sweeping the large entryway. The memorial was being held here, in the largest community space, and the far wall was covered in pictures, the floor beneath lined with votives. Danny had objected to their use last year, arguing that candles were too precious to waste on the dead, but Captain Chandler overruled him. And as Danny stared at the wall, he understood the Captain's position. There was something about the flickering lights that turned the space from a common room into a church.

Or at least something more than a fifty-year-old conference room with faded wallpaper and ragged curtains.

Kara stood on the left side of the room, Frankie in her arms. Danny moved through the crowd towards her, responding automatically to who addressed him. Nodding at the comments - _good to see you Commander, thank you for your service, God Bless._ Smiling at the children who saluted him. Pausing to pat the hands that clutched at his arm or to accept the handshakes offered, voices gushing as people thanked him - _t_ _hanked him_ \- for keeping them safe. Every word, every gesture like a knife to the chest.

These people trusted him, believed in him, thought that there was a plan to keep them safe. They had no idea that he was just as lost as they were, stumbling through each day, his only goal to make it to the next. _Keeping them safe by killing others._ Danny stopped two feet from Kara, his eyes draw to the pictures on the wall before her. The ones that he knew she had added.

The first one was Alisha, puppy in her lap, smiling radiantly at the camera. According to Kara, the picture was taken days before the Nathan James left for the Arctic, Sarah having adopted the puppy to keep her company while Alisha was at sea. Next to Alisha was Gator, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, far more casual in death than Danny ever remembered seeing him in life. Both looked happy in their pictures, carefree and hopeful, the opposite of the last time Danny saw them. Coughing. Covered in boils. Blood pouring from every edifice until Doctor Scott finally put them out of their misery with a shot of morphine. Why had he put them in charge of recovering the communications equipment? Why hadn't he told them to forget it and run? The two never stood a chance, running directly into Niels Sorensen, the sick bastard.

The day that Ravit put a bullet through that contagious asshole's head was a day of celebration.

To the right of Gator's picture was one of Commander Barker, his arm around his wife's shoulders, children on each of their laps. Their youngest was here, actually, in the group of children chosen to sing at the memorial. In the unlikeliest of chances, Stella had a terrible cough the night of the attack and Barker brought her by the improvised hospital to see Doc Rios, concerned it was bronchitis. When the alarms went off, Rios evacuated with Stella and the other patients while Barker returned for his wife and son, all three gunned down before they could make their escape.

Eyes moving to the next picture, Danny's throat caught at the unexpected sight. It was his team - he, Benz, Berchem, and Smith - a picture taken in Iraq a year before they joined the Nathan James, the four of them in uniform, kneeling in the sand. Scanning over the wall of pictures, seeing a sea of faces looking back at him, Danny realized that this memorial was about more than the one-hundred-sixty-three people lost in the raid two years ago. It was about everyone, and everything, they had lost since the Red Flu turned the world unrecognizable.

"Daddy!" Frankie had caught sight of him, her arms outstretched so she could climb from her mother to her father. Hefting her up, Danny marveled in how solid Frankie was, so different from the frail, feeble children he saw only hours earlier.

Forcing a smile, Danny kissed her nose. "Hi sweetheart."

"Mommy was showing me Grandma," Frankie replied cheerfully. "She's dead."

Danny's eyes flew to Kara, not expecting such a stark statement from his daughter. Tears glittering in her eyes, Kara stretched out her hand to Danny, intertwining their fingers, the show of affection uncharacteristic given that they were in public and in uniform. "I was telling Frankie about how Grandma Debbie and I would ride horses together when I was a little girl."

Kara gestured to the small polaroid pinned to the wall, faded from time. Debbie was smiling, her arm wrapped around her only child, the two standing before the farmhouse in Kansas where Kara was raised. Danny felt a familiar sense of guilt. One minute Debbie was there, right behind them, and the next she was gone. Lost in the panic and confusion of the evacuation, Danny too focused on Kara and Frankie to notice that Debbie was no longer there. He had looked - they had all looked once it was safe to go back, to search for survivors - but she was simply gone, disappearing into the night without a trace.

He still wondered which was worse for Kara. Knowing that her best friend was infected, dying, and there was nothing anyone could do to save her. Or realizing that her mother might still be out there, lost and alone, but equally helpless as the hours ticked down until it was time to move on to their next temporary home.

Because that was the rule. Forty-eight hours from the sound of the alarm to make it to the rally point. A blood test to check for infection. And when the deadline passed, they moved on. No forwarding address. No exceptions. Out of the four-hundred-seventy-nine people at the camp at Deer Park, only three-hundred-sixteen left the rally point. The next stop had been this camp, a thirty-four hour drive, and Kara stared out the window the entire trip, each mile they traveled a reminder of who they were leaving behind.

"I want to ride a horse, Daddy," Frankie continued, her innocence tearing at Danny's heart. In another world, a world without the virus, such a request would have made him laugh. _His_ _little girl asking a pony_. But not now. Not when there was every possibility that Frankie would never see a pony - or the world outside of these walls.

"Maybe someday, curly-sue."

"My name isn't Sue!" Frankie responded indignantly.

"It isn't? I could have sworn it was..." Danny tugged at one of Frankie's curls, causing her to giggle.

"Daddy!"

"Daddy's just teasing you, Frankie," Kara interjected before Frankie got too loud. Looking up, Danny found Kara watching him, her expression unreadable. "Thank you for coming."

He could barely form the words over the lump in his throat. "I would do anything for you."

Kara squeezed his hand. "I know."

"Can I have your attention!" Mrs. Allen's voice rang out, the murmuring in the room quickly dying. "We will start with a moment of prayer. Chaplin?"

Danny bowed his head, fixing a look of polite interest on his face as the man began to speak. Wondering whether next year he would be adding Eddie's picture to that wall.


	5. Lollipops

_Ch. 5 - Lollipops_

 _x_

Ray slipped into the lodge, looking distinctly uncomfortable when his entrance into the quiet room drew several glances. Father Jeff was speaking and, from the corner of his eye, Danny saw Ray cross himself before he began maneuvering through the crowd, heading in Danny's direction. If Danny were feeling more charitable, he would have met Ray halfway, but he didn't. His last instructions were for Ray to notify him _immediately_ if there was any change in the group outside the gate and Ray had clearly taken those instructions to heart, most likely still smarting from his earlier lapse of judgment. Danny could think of no other reason why Ray would take the risk of interrupting the memorial.

Which could only mean that people had started getting sick.

As the priest droned on, Danny took the opportunity to pull Frankie closer. Feel her solid warmth. Touch her bouncing curls. Kiss her silky cheek. Smell her baby scent. Glancing up, he saw Kara watching him, Ray hovering a few steps back. Her mouth opened, then closed, both of them aware that this was neither the time or place to talk. Instead Kara reached for Frankie, shushing the child's somewhat sleepy protest at the transfer, allowing Danny to follow Ray back across the space. At the entrance he turned, catching one last glimpse of the two, memorizing the sight of Frankie's curls spilling over Kara's shoulder as she swayed, lulling the child.

As they stepped outside, Danny was briefly blinded by the sun. With the drapes closed the lodge was dark enough to forget that it was barely noon. He waited for the spots to disappear before moving briskly towards the armory, Ray hurrying to catch up. "Who is sick?"

"The first two guys. Kemper and Erm..." Ray began before Danny cut him off.

"I know that. Who else?"

"Your friend, that Eddie guy. And another guard, David Choy," Ray replied.

Danny froze in the process of sliding his knife into his belt, before forcing himself to continue gathering his gear. The chance of Amber and Tyler avoiding exposure if Eddie was sick was...well, Danny didn't know the stats but they weren't good. Re-locking the door to the armory, Danny scowled at Ray. "Who else?"

"That's it. Really. I called Doc Rios to double check because it seemed weird, right? I've never seen only four people in a group get infected. Usually it's everybody or nobody or maybe one person gets lucky but..."

Danny stopped listening. Only four people were sick.

 _The four people who didn't get the vaccine._

Danny scowled, dismissing the thought, but it was too late, he was already imaging it. A world with a vaccine. A world where they could fight this virus. A world where he might be able to leave his daughter without wondering if this was the last time he would see her. Pulling on every bit of patience his possessed, Danny kept his voice calm when he cut Ray off. "What did Rios say?"

"Oh," Ray paused in his babbling. "He and Doctor Scott need to see you ASAP. Lieutenant Burk is already with them. Lieutenant Bivas is at the command center."

"Thank you Seamen. You are dismissed."

As Ray practically ran in the direction of the guard shack, Danny forced himself to move towards the lab despite his feet feeling like blocks of lead, memories of the last time that he, along with Captain Chandler, was called to see Doctor Scott during a trial rising unbidden. Then, like now, the vaccine had seemed to be working. At first, anyway. Sure there were signs that there there were problems, high fevers and trouble breathing, but nobody was dying. Besides, Doctor Scott didn't seem concerned, likening the problems to the side-effects of a baby getting a vaccine. In fact, Doctor Scott had been ecstatic, her excitement so contagious that Captain Chandler agreed to share the news of the vaccine with the civilian government, bringing on a round of celebrations. Celebrations that abruptly ceased when those given the vaccine developed new symptoms, ones that neither Doctor Scott nor Doctor Tophet could explain or correct. Different from the virus, but with the same result.

 _Death._

A stark reminder that, no matter how close they got, the virus always won.

Approaching the small, isolated building that Doctor Scott and Doctor Tophet used as a lab, Danny could to hear the woman shrieking. "You don't understand. I _need_ those samples!"

"Sorry ma'am but it's against protocol," Carlton was replying when Danny stepped through the door, the sight of the two clearly at loggerheads enough to leave him drained.

Doctor Scott's eyes flew to Danny. "Commander Green. Thank goodness! I need you to authorize me to go outside the gate. I absolutely must examine those people."

"Absolutely not." Besides the fact that it was against protocol, Captain Chandler's position on this was intractable. If he returned to find out that Danny allowed their best shot at stopping the Red Flu put herself in danger, no matter the reason, he might as well volunteer for latrine duty for the next year- and that assumed nothing happened. If something did... "You leaving the walls is non-negotiable."

"Then I'll go." Doctor Tophet stepped forward, causing Danny to notice him, Rios, and Kat for the first time.

"Same answer, Doc. You both know the drill. You need something, I can get it for you."

Doctor Scott looked like she might explode, her body practically quivering with rage or excitement or both. "It's simply too complicated. I need to be able to look at these people to figure out what is going on."

Danny folded his arms over his chest, wondering how far away Captain Slattery was in case Doctor Scott could not be convinced to see reason, something that had happened on more than one occasion. "Sorry, Doc, not happening."

"Let me go, Green." Rios's offer was unexpected. Unlike Scott and Tophet, Rios was rarely involved in the vaccine trials, the majority of his time spent handling the day-to-day medical needs of the camp, much as he had on the Nathan James back in the day, albeit on a larger scale.

Danny pinned Rios with his gaze. "Fill me in. Why is this so important?"

Rios picked up a folder, handing it to Danny, ignoring Doctor Scott's exasperated sigh. She scowled, foot tapping as Rios began explaining. "Based on the timeline we developed for the likely time of original exposure, those with the virus should have begun showing signs of infection by now. But the only the four who didn't receive the vaccine are sick."

The graphs in the folder meant nothing to Danny, medical information being something that he typically relied on Kara to translate. He passed the folder to Carlton, who looked equally perplexed. "So you think it worked? How do you know that they won't get sick later?"

 _Like the last time_ hung in the air.

"It _more_ than worked!" Doctor Scott insisted, grabbing the folder and flipping to a different page, her finger stabbing at the left-most column. "Do you see this? It's a list of those infected with the virus at the time of the second blood draw when the trial vaccine was administered."

 _Jocelyn Kemper_

 _Donna Kemper_

 _Richard Ermer_

 _Rob Abbott_

 _Laura Abbott_

 _Michaela Abbott_

 _Hannah Abbott_

 _Ted Moses_

 _Jean Moses_

 _Simon Costellini_

 _Judy Barstow_

 _Eddie Ward_

 _Amber Ward_

 _Tyler Ward_

Danny stopped reading, the weight on his chest making it almost impossible to breathe. Forcing him to face how much he had hoped that Amber and Tyler might have escaped infection. How much he hoped that this vaccine might work. How much he wanted to tell Eddie that his self-sacrifice had meant something...

"But none of the people who received the vaccine are sick," Doctor Scott continued, flipping through the pages almost frantically before shoving them back at him, her eyes burning. "Based on these levels they _should_ be sick but none of them are. Even the children. _None of them are sick_."

"So it hadn't been long enough," Danny replied shortly, slapping the folder closed, wanting to erase the sight of Amber's name, of Tyler's name, on that list.

"That's not it." Doctor Scott ground her teeth, her frustration with Danny's inability to comprehend the importance of what she was saying obvious. "The virus acts in a _very_ specific way. It is scientifically impossible for this number of infected people to have avoided symptoms simply by chance."

"She's right," Rios added with a slightly-nervous glance at Doctor Scott. "I've seen the data."

Doctor Scott scowled at them as the silence stretched. "I have never lied to you. When I tell you that I am certain of something, I am certain. And I am certain that at least some of those people should be sick right now."

Danny nodded reluctantly. "So why aren't they?"

"I can think of only one reason," she replied.

"The test was wrong," Danny offered, that traitor hope creeping back in.

"The virus has mutated and is behaving differently," Doctor Tophet threw in.

"Is that possible?" Carlton demanded, looking sick at the very idea.

"The laboratory results are absolutely accurate," Doctor Scott replied, shooting a quelling look at her assistant. "Leaving only two possibilities. The possibility of a mutation. Something that is extremely unlikely given the fact that the virus has been stable for the past four years and that the bloodwork we took was completely consistent with past samples. Or..."

"Yes?"

"Or we didn't find a vaccine," Doctor Scott paused, taking a deep breath. "We found a cure."

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Forty-five minutes later Danny stood outside the wall, sliding a needle into Eddie's arm once again. On the opposite side of the clearing Rios was busy examining the eighteen members of the group who remained symptom-free. Doctor Scott had given Rios detailed instructions about what questions to ask and what symptoms to look for, but that had not stopped her from sitting in the command center and firing off question after question in a running commentary, leading Danny to turn off his com within minutes.

Eddie's face was pale, his skin burning up (102.5 according to the temperature Danny took in an effort to make it look like they were doing _something_ for the sick men besides giving them cots and blankets and morphine), with large bruises forming under his skin where blood vessels had broken. Eddie answered Danny's questions about how he was feeling absently, eyes glued on Amber and Tyler, who was sobbing over the blood draw, despite the bribe Rios offered in the form of a lollipop. "They aren't sick yet. That's a good sign, right?"

"Eddie I can't.." Danny stopped. The man was dying. What was the harm in offering comfort, no matter how false it might be? "Yes, it's a good sign."

"And you'll take care of them?"

That pressure, the one that lifted slightly at the idea of Amber and Tyler surviving, was back, making it hard to speak. "Yeah."

"You'll make sure Tyler goes to school?" Eddie coughed, bending over almost in half, his action drawing the attention of his wife, tears spilling down her cheeks as she watched them, knowing that there was nothing she could do to help.

Danny imagined saying goodbye to Kara, to Frankie, trusting their safety, their very lives to another person. To a man he hadn't seen in years. Danny barely trusted Carlton to watch his daughter and the man was trustworthy as a rock, how could Eddie possibly trust Danny to take care of Amber and Tyler? "Yeah, I will."

Still coughing, Eddie grabbed Danny's sleeve. "You can't tell Amber either."

Rios was waving Danny over, presumably needing help with some of the tests that Doctor Scott wanted done. Not that anything was overly complicated but the thick hazmat suits made doing many of the simplest tasks tricky. "Can't tell her what?"

He waited while Eddie finished coughing, taking a drink from his water bottle. "You can't tell her that I didn't get the real vaccine. She'll be pissed off. Maybe do something stupid like blame you, which means you won't be able take care of her. You can't tell her. Promise me. Tell her that I was one of the people who was already exposed."

Eddie was right, Amber would blame Danny. And there wasn't a damn thing that Danny could do about it because, if this worked, if they could really cure the sick, she would know. She would know that Eddie died not because he was exposed before he received the vaccine, because there was nothing they could do. No, she would know that Eddie died because of Danny's decision to give the vaccine to someone else.

"Eddie..."

 _"Promise me."_

Danny looked again at Amber. At the devastation on her face. At the way she held Tyler tightly against her chest. She would never forgive Danny once she knew. But what was one more lie when Danny had already told so many?

"I promise."

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Ravit was the only one who wasn't pacing, probably due more to the state of her ankles than a sense of calm. Doctor Scott had only been gone for thirty minutes, but Danny felt like days must have passed since he left Kara and Frankie at the memorial. There was complete silence when Doctor Scott finally exited the hazmat chamber where she conducted her testing, removing her mask slowly.

"Their bodies are producing antibodies, fighting off the virus. We should wait a few days to be safe but..." A tear slid down Doctor Scott's face, and then she smiled. "We did it."

Time slowed as her words sunk in.

 _They had a cure._

 _A way to heal the sick._ _A way to protect the healthy._

 _And they were out of ethanol._

 _So they couldn't make any more._

Danny turned to Carlton. "We need to contact Captain Slatter. _Now._ "


	6. Last Words

_Ch. 6 - Last Words_

 _x_

Danny watched as Rios folded a blanket over the corpse of the person who was, most likely, patient zero, trying to remember the man's name. He should know. He had known it only thirty-six hours ago, memorized it, actually, back when he needed to know who should get the vaccine and who should get the placebo. But the name had left Danny as quickly has it come, his long-term memory judging the information as useless.

 _Simply another man who he would watch die._

The clearing where they stood was unnaturally quiet, the only sounds the rustling of the leaves and the ragged breath of the three men who were still fighting for their lives. Forty-eight hours. It had been less than forty-eight hour since Eddie first arrived. A second - _and an eternity_ \- Danny still struggling to catch up with the whiplash of emotions.

 _A_ _microcosm of the past four years_ _._

At first, he had been sure that things would work out. Even when the Nathan James first arrived home from the Arctic and learned of the extent of the breakdown of civilization, there had still been hope. Hope that things really weren't as bad as they seemed, hope that there were still untouched sections of the country, hope for a vaccine, hope for the future. Three days ago, Danny would have said he no longer had hope, but he had been lying to himself. Because that hope reappeared the moment he saw saw Eddie. Hope that his friend would be one of the lucky ones, hope that if Eddie had somehow survived, his family might have too. Hope, hope, hope, followed swiftly by anger.

Anger that the incompetence of others - ignoring early warnings, implementing quarantines poorly, failing to share research because of political in-fighting - allowed so many to die. _Billions_. The number was so large as to be incomprehensible. Anger that there was nothing he could do to fight this enemy. Anger for all the lies he was forced to tell, convincing one group of survivors after another to test a vaccine. The lies to Eddie. The lies to Amber. The lies to the man lying dead before him, giving him hope of survival when there was none. But without hope or anger, what was there?

 _Misery. Anguish. Despair._

There were times, late at night, when Danny even felt envious of Benz. Who had the distinction of dying before any of them understood what they were coming home to. Who hadn't suffered the death of friends over and over again. Who hadn't dealt with the constant struggle simply to survive, having his world destroyed not just once, but over and over again. Who didn't know the pain of singing happy birthday to a child, wondering whether she would see another year.

But the emotion Danny was feeling now was different, one that he hadn't felt since the night that Benz took his own life. Not simply despair, but desperation. Because with the realization that this vaccine worked came the realization that they couldn't make any more. Which meant that Eddie was still going to die. Which meant that any accidental infection of those in the camp was still a death sentence. Having discovered the cure, but having no means of using it, was almost worse than another failure.

Exhaustion, the same enemy that Danny had been fighting for the past four years threatened to crush him. He had planned to sleep last night, knowing from the aches in his body that he was pushing himself too hard, too far. Wolf had actually looked pleased when Danny signed off at twenty-two hundred with the intention of heading directly home. He didn't so much as light a candle, crashed in his bed next to Kara fully dressed, only taking a moment to kiss Frankie's soft cheek. But no matter how tired he was, he couldn't banish the images. Of Benz. Of Berchem. Of Smith. Of Alisha and Gator and Miller. Of every civilian that he failed to save. Of every person he had looked at, every set of eyes that he had met, before giving them a vaccine that he knew wouldn't work. His sleep was restless, at best, and he knew that he had woken Kara at least once, although she hadn't said anything.

Then came the news, just before dawn, that the sick had taken a turn for the worse. Danny joined Rios, the two men donning the far too familiar hazmat suits before trudging out into the weak light of the rising sun. Arriving just in time to watch the man before them die.

"He had a wife." Eddie's words were unexpected, Danny had assumed that his friend was unconscious. "Donna. She's blond. You should tell her yourself. I would but..."

A long wracking cough broke off Eddie's words. Rios helped him roll to his side, all three men ignoring the blood that dripped from Eddie's nose, splattering on the blanket below. The nosebleed was a minor symptom. What would kill Eddie was the blood even now pooling in his lungs, making it difficult to breath.

"Donna. Got it." Danny was halfway across the clearing before he realized the he still didn't remember the dead man's name. A rookie mistake. One that neither Chandler or Slattery would make. Hell, one that he _shouldn't_ have made. Once Slattery was back, he really needed to sleep. Maybe Doctor Scott would give him something. There was a rumor that she would do that for the guys, if they asked. Not that anyone ever admitted to asking, of course. But there were times when the nightmares became too much. Both the ones that woke them up in the middle of the night, and the ones that kept them from sleeping in the first place.

Scanning the small crowd, which was keeping their distance from the cots, Danny located Amber, catching her gaze and waiting for her to approach him, knowing his presence unnerved the group, his suit a stark reminder that they were not out of the woods. Not yet, anyway. Thirty-six hours after the vaccine was administered and there were still no signs of illness, only the antibodies indicating that their bodies were actually fighting this thing - and winning.

Amber stopped before another woman, one that Danny vaguely recognized from Eddie and Amber's wedding so many years ago. A relative of Amber's, perhaps? A short conversation ensued before the woman spread a blanket on the ground, allowing Amber to set Tyler down, the other woman keeping her distance. Self-preservation winning out over any maternal instincts.

"Who was it?" Amber whispered, her eyes glued on her husband where Rios was now helping him sit up.

Danny sidestepped the question. "Which one is Donna?"

"Oh, God, Jocelyn." Tears filled Amber's eyes, but Danny saw the relief there as well. Relief that it wasn't Eddie with the sheet pulled over his head. "I'll call her. Donna!"

Twenty feet away a woman's head jerked up. She was cuddled by the portable heater, her frail body wrapped in a flannel shirt that was far too big, her dirty blond hair twisted up into a loose bun. The woman rose shakily, the tears already flowing as she walked towards Danny and Amber, not needing to hear the words to know what had happened.

Still, that's why he was here. He hoped the words didn't sound as hollow to Donna as they did to him. "I'm sorry to inform you that your husband has passed away."

But it hardly mattered what he said anyway, as Amber swept forward and wrapped her arms around Donna, ignoring every prohibition that either Eddie or Danny had put into place on keeping human contact to a minimum. "I am _so_ sorry, Donna. Joc was a good man."

The woman crumpled into Amber's arms, sobbing. "He was so positive. Thinking that the vaccine would work." Then her head jerked up, eyes glaring at Danny. "Why didn't it _work?_ Why did he have to die? Why him? _Why him?_ "

 _Because Danny decided who would get the vaccine, and he hadn't wanted to waste the dose on a man who was already dead._

Danny's response was automatic, the guilt threatening to choke him. "I'm very sorry, ma'am."

"Donna, he must have already been infected. We knew somebody was because of that first test. There was nothing they could do," Amber rushed to speak, her tone soothing. "Jocelyn would just be glad that you aren't sick. You know that. We should be thanking these people for what they did, saving the rest of us."

 _Thanking them._ Once Amber knew the truth, she would be the first in line to claw out Danny's eyes.

But Donna was buying it, her face softening as she turned again to Danny. "I'm sorry. I am thankful for the vaccine. I'm just..."

Her voice broke, and Danny couldn't stand looking at this woman for one more instant. Knowing that it was his choice, his alone, that was responsible for her pain. "I need to get back."

The husky tone in his voice surprised him, and was something that Rios apparently caught as well, glancing at him across the clearing. "You okay, Commander?"

"Fine." Danny turned back towards the three remaining victims, wondering how much longer they could possibly survive. How much longer this torment would last - for them and for him.

"Danny! Wait!"

Amber was dashing after him, apparently heedless of how close she was to the infected. Frowning, Danny stopped her. "What are you doing?"

"I need to see Eddie." She stared at him through the plastic of his helmet. "Please. I won't touch him. And I'll stay away from everyone afterwards. I won't take the risk of exposing anyone. I just, I really need to have a few moments..."

 _A few moments to say goodbye._

"What if it was your wife?"

The whispered question caught him, drawing up too many memories. Memories of standing on the other side of the hazmat tent, by the head of Berchem's cot, while Rios administered the last dose of morphine. Memories of holding Alisha's hand while she wasted away, taking Kara's place because Kara couldn't take the chance of being infected, not while she was nursing Frankie. If Kara were sick, there wasn't a thing in the world that would stop him from reaching her side.

"Command, I need an extra hazmat suit delivered."

"Something rip?" Carlton's response was immediate, and concerned. "Get into decontamination now."

Danny almost snorted. As though it would make any difference if his suit was ripped. The virus was relentless once it got a hold on you, and now they couldn't even make more of the cure. "Not for me. For one of the civilians. So she can see her husband."

A long pause followed. "You sure that's a good idea?"

 _No, he wasn't_. "It's the right thing to do."

And Carlton must have agreed, because he relented far easier than Danny would have if the situation was reversed. "On it's way."

As expected, the delivery took almost twenty minutes. First someone had to gear up, then retrieve the extra suit, then go through the series of doors, ones designed to keep people - and the virus - out. When the final gate opened, Danny glanced over, expecting to see Wolf or Cruz, but instead it was Kara's petite form that was moving out from the doorway. Irritation, and perhaps some panic, coursed through Danny. What the hell was she doing here?

 _They had a rule!_

Only one of them ever left the compound at a time. Only one of them was ever at risk of exposure. One of them always stayed behind, so that Frankie wouldn't wake up one morning with two parents and go to bed an orphan. The fact that it was always him taking the risk, always him leaving the gates, always him who might not come home, was a point of contention. But this was the first time that Kara had ever broken their agreement.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" He growled, not even attempting to modulate his tone.

"Turn off your com." Kara's voice was cool, composed, as unruffled as if they were sitting at their kitchen table eating dinner.

"What?"

"Do you want the entire camp hearing this conversation?"

Okay, that was a valid point. Danny snapped off his microphone, striving to keep his temper. "Fine. Now what are you doing out here? Where's Frankie?"

"She's fine." Kara reached out, her hand settling on his arm. "The suit is for Amber, Eddie's wife, isn't it?"

"Yes," Danny admitted, hating the change of topic but recognizing Kara's mood, and knowing that she wasn't going anywhere until she said what she wanted to say. _Damn woman could be stubborn as a mule._

"What are you doing out here, Danny? Really? And don't tell me that you're helping Timothy because any of the guys could be out here right now if that's all it was."

 _He didn't need this shit right now_. He grabbed the suit, starting to turn, but Kara's hand tightened.

"I heard you last night."

That stopped him. "Heard what?" he asked cautiously.

"You were calling for Benz. Was it the dream where your mask came off?"

 _Damn_. He had almost forgotten telling her about that dream. It was months ago now, after one of the trials, when he woke on the floor, sweat pouring down his face, Kara's name on the tip of his tongue. Kara had woken too, of course, unable to sleep through the crash when he rolled off the bed and in the dark, panic still coursing through his veins, he admitted that he sometimes imagined that it was him. His mask coming off. His life cut short. His gun rising to his head before he pulled the trigger. He wasn't sure what scared him the most, the realization that he could have left Kara to raise Frankie alone.

 _Or the fact that such a death didn't seem all that bad anymore._

"No. This time Benz's mask came off. But I had the cure in my hand and..." he swallowed thickly, staring past Kara's head at the metal gate behind her, "And I didn't use it."

"Oh, Danny," the quiet understanding in her voice almost made it worse. "What's happening with Eddie, that was his choice. Just like killing himself was Frankie's choice. _You_ didn't do this. You need to accept that they were grown men who made their own decisions."

 _You're wrong._ He could have saved Eddie, giving him the real vaccine, just like he could have saved Benz if he only thought to tell him to slow down. The words were on the tip of his tongue but Danny stopped himself before he spoke. This wasn't a new conversation, both of them making the same arguments over and over again until he could predict exactly what each of them would say.

 _What was it people said was the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?_

He took a deep breath. "I need to be here, Kara. This is where I belong."

"I don't want to lose you now, Danny. Not when it might finally be over. We actually did it! We found a cure. That means we can start rebuilding. Maybe in a few years we can get a house, have a garden, maybe a pony for Frankie. We can have a real life again. We can be happy." Tears sparkled in Kara's eyes. "Please don't give us on me - don't give up on us - now."

She and Frankie were the best things in his life, the only things that had kept him going for the past four years, but when he tried to imagine it - a real house, a yard, no threat of imminent death hanging over them - Danny's mind rebelled, remaining blank. When he pushed harder, looking for any thought of the future, all he could see were Kara and Frankie's dead corpses, their eyes staring up at him blankly, everything he cared about gone in a heartbeat.

Danny wasn't even sure he could still feel happy, truly happy. Not the way he had in the Arctic when Kara would smile at him. Not the way he had the day that they exchanged rings and vows. Not the way he did when he first held his baby girl in his arms.

 _That man was long gone, buried under the weight of too many days, too many deaths._

"I'm just tired, Kara. Once Captain Slattery's back, I'll ask for a day off and get some sleep." He clasped her hand, a meaningless gesture when they were both wearing gloves, but the best he could do.

"Promise?" She knew he was lying, saying words that she wanted to hear to end the conversation. Of course, he knew what she wasn't saying - which is that she would get Rios to take him off the schedule if he didn't pull it together. _I_ _f he didn't deal with the problem_ , as she was so fond of saying.

"I promise." Danny waited while Kara turned, opening the gate into the compound, needing to know that she was back inside - safe - before he moved.

She turned a final time, her worry etched in her face. "I love you."

He forced a smile, a poor facsimile of his signature smile, the one that she fell in love with. "Me too."

The smile lasted the three seconds it took for the gate to lock and the first step of the decontamination process to kick in. Then Danny turned back to the group of survivors who, in the past forty-eight hours, had become the focus of his world. He strode towards to Amber, checking to make sure that Tyler was still occupied. Now awake, he was sitting on the blanket where Amber placed him earlier, eating what looked like an MRE. "Here. Get dressed."

"Thank you." Amber took the offered suit. "Was that your wife?"

Danny hesitated. "Yes, that was Kara."

"She must worry about you." A simple observation, but one that reminded Danny of how lucky he was to have Kara. To not be alone in this world. Like Donna, like Wolf, like hundreds of people within the compound walls, the sole survivors of their families.

"It's what I would have done," he explained, answering the question that she asked thirty minutes before while she pulled the suit on over her ratty clothes. "If that was Kara over there."

Donna acknowledged the admission with a simple thank you, before moving across the clearing. Danny watched as Amber eased into the seat that Rios had set up next to Eddie, her plastic covered hand reaching for his. "Hi, baby. Danny said that we could have a visit."


	7. Rubber Ducks

_Chapter 7 - Rubber Ducks_

 _x_

"Are you sure?" Captain Slattery's voice was understandably skeptical. After all, Danny wasn't the only one to have watched vaccination trial after vaccination trial fail. Slattery had not just seen it, but lived through it, watching his wife perish, assuming that his daughters would be next, counting down the minutes that they might have left. The Slattery girls survived only through a fluke of nature, and it was something that the XO never forgot, the natural immunity that his daughters inherited from him both a blessing and a curse, as they were forced to watch those around them, including their mother and brother, die. "We've gotten this far before."

"As I have explained, _Captain_ , the last time was different. In that case, the patients' bloodwork did not show any signs of the virus at the time the vaccine was administered. It was only later that the patients began to get sick. I have since determined that it was an auto-immune reaction to the vaccine's delivery system which left them unable to fight off the virus. I have now corrected that problem."

After years of working together, Slattery had little patience for Doctor Scott's long-winded explanations. "Cut to the chase, Doc."

"I have never lied to you, Captain. When I do not know something I have told you. And I am telling you now that we have a cure to the Red Flu. I am _certain_. These people were clearly infected when they arrived and yet it has been almost sixty hours and they show no signs of illness. In fact, their bloodwork shows that the amount of the virus in their systems is now lower than it was three days ago. In other words, they're getting better. There is simply no other explanation."

"We cannot explain miracles," Father Jeff interjected. Slattery had invited him, along with the remainder of the civilian board, to this meeting as a courtesy, but the group had added little to the conversation. Everyone in the room knew that, ultimately, the decision of how to handle this trial rested with Captain Slattery, and nobody planned to challenge his decision. If anything, each one was thankful that they were not being put in the position of having to make such a monumental decision, one which could save or doom the camp.

"No other medical explanation." With a cross of her arms, Doctor Scott revised her statement, apparently uninterested in debating with the Priest, usually one of her favorite past-times. Danny actually enjoyed listening to their conversations, Doctor Scott being surprisingly knowledgeable about the Bible for someone who swore that believing in a higher power made as much sense as believing in Santa Clause, but today was not the time.

Slattery tapped his fingers on the table as he skimmed over the information that Doctor Scott had provided.

"I assume that you have the ethanol that I requested?" Doctor Scott demanded, not bothering to wait for Slattery to speak.

"Of course, Ensign Wiltmore is bringing it now." There was a sharp edge to Slattery's voice.

"Excellent, I'll start a new batch of the cure now..."

Slattery cut her off. "However, I wouldn't suggest using all of it, just in case this doesn't work. We had to go out almost fifty miles to find the amount that you needed. No telling when we'll get more."

"Well, you're going to have to find more," Doctor Scott retorted, never knowing when to keep her mouth closed. "If we want to inoculate the entire camp, anyway. A large amount of the ethanol is burned off during the conversion process, but it's critical to stabilizing the vaccine."

"So you won't be able to make enough for everyone?" The panic in Mrs. Allen's voice was obvious.

"First, let's make sure this works." Slattery caught Danny's eye. "Green, outside now."

Leaving Doctor Scott to manage the questions now flowing from the civilian board, mostly concerns over how limited amounts of the vaccine would be distributed, Danny trailed Slattery outside. Once alone, Slattery fell silent, allowing several minutes to pass before speaking. "I take it you couldn't reach Captain Chandler?"

"No, sir." They had tried, of course, but like the last three days, there had been no answer. It could simply be because the man was out of range. Or it could meant that he wasn't coming back, disappearing into the night like so many had before. There was, of course, a reason that the Captain insisted on going on these scavenger hunts solo. Suicide mission wouldn't be a completely inaccurate description.

Slattery rubbed a dirt-stained hand across his forehead. "It's gotten bad out there, Green. Survivors killing each other for a few cans of food. Hospitals stripped bare as people self-medicate with whatever they can find. Suicides even among the healthy. If this isn't it...I'm not sure how much longer anyone can survive this."

It had been many months since Danny joined the excursion teams, now mostly comprised of those who were naturally immune. But nothing that Slattery was saying came as a surprise. The desperation of the groups that trickled into the camp was unmistakable. What was a surprise was the exhaustion in Slattery's voice, the resignation. As though he, like Danny, could no longer imagine the world going back to the way it was. Perhaps it was that resignation that allowed Danny to push some enthusiasm into his tone, attempting to channel Carlton's unending optimism. "Those people outside the gate, sir, they aren't sick. I've spent the last three days with them. I've seen it myself. Doctor Scott might really have done it this time. She might have found a cure."

Slattery crossed his arms. "None of the other groups lasted this long, did they?"

"No, sir, not even close. I went over the data last night." There were some benefits to insomnia. He knew those files inside and out. "By now every prior group was showing serious signs of illness, or had been cleared for admission."

Slattery stared into the distance before his eyes swung back to Danny. "You look like shit, Green."

Danny found himself smiling despite the ridiculousness of the statement. They were in the middle of a pandemic with barely enough water to cook, never mind shower. Of course he looked like shit. "Thank you, sir."

That time Slattery was the one to smile. "Go home, Green. Get some sleep. I'm going to go over the data. I'll let you once I make a decision."

With a nod, Danny watched Captain Slattery retreat to the command center before moving back towards Doctor Scott's lab. The crowd parted, all assuming that he was here to discuss official business. "Doctor Scott, a word?"

At his nod, she stepped to the side, away from the small crowd. "Yes, Commander?"

"I was wondering," Danny paused, hoping being blunt wasn't a mistake. "That is, I haven't been sleeping well, waking up Kara. Do you have something that will knock me out for a couple hours?"

Her eyes softened and she moved towards the back of the lab, returning in a few moments with a manila envelop. "Here you go, Commander. For tonight. Be prepared, they're strong. Plan to be out for roughly twelve hours."

 _Twelve hours._ The idea of that much uninterrupted sleep was almost overwhelming. "Thank you."

"If you need more, simply ask."

The cabin was dark when he arrived, Kara and Frankie nowhere in sight. Danny considered knocking on Ravit and Carlton's door, seeing if they were there, but instead found himself walking into his cabin, taking only the time to pull off his boots and belt before collapsing onto the bed. Reaching into the simple manila envelop, Danny dug out the two small pills. For just an instant he considered discarding them, hating the idea of being indisposed if something happened, unable to snap to attention. Then, almost as though his body had a mind of his own, his hand moved and he was swallowing the pills. Leaning back against the pillow Danny began counting sheep, praying for the blessed oblivion of sleep.

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"Five little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away, mama duck said, quack! quack! quack! But only four little ducks came back..."

Danny twitched, Frankie's singing sounding both so close and so far away. He tried to open his eyes, but the lids were too heavy, and instead he found himself sinking back down in the mattress. How had he never noticed how saggy the bed was before? He was practically buried in pillows.

"Four little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away, mama duck said, quack! quack! quack! But only three little ducks came back..."

"Frankie, time to finish your breakfast." Kara's no-nonsense voice was followed by the sound of dishes rattling.

Breakfast? What time was it? Danny tried, unsuccessfully, to recall what time he returned to the cabin the night before. It was early, he knew that much, Slattery and his team having made camp just after sixteen hundred and then the discussions with Doctor Scott taking place no more than an hour or two afterwards. Had he truly slept through until the next morning?

"Three little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away, mama duck said, quack! quack! quack! But only two little ducks came back..."

Rolling to his side, Danny forced heavy eyelids open, making out the sight of Frankie sitting at the small kitchen table, several rubber duckies before her, the largest one in her hand as it bobbed across the table. They used the ducks in the shower, Kara and Frankie showering together in order to get ten minutes a session rather than five, giving Frankie a few minutes to play in the warm spray and Kara enough time to wash her hair. Maybe now they could actually take Frankie to a lake, teach her to swim, let her see real ducks.

The thought popped up unbidden and he quickly pushed it away.

"Two little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away, mama duck said, quack! quack! quack! But only one little ducks came back..."

Kara was humming along as Frankie continued singing, scrubbing at the dishes before dipping them into the small basin of water that was set aside for that purpose. Her hair was loose down her back and she was dressed in jeans and a knit top rather than her uniform, apparently off-duty today. He could see a hole forming at her elbow, the article of clothing pushed well past its intended use, and he considered the possibility that they might be able to go further abroad, actually locate a clothing store that wasn't already raided. Perhaps find something new, maybe even with tags, holding that fresh store smell.

"One little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away, mama duck said, quack! quack! quack! But no little ducks came back..."

"Why did the ducks go away?" He asked, his voice gravelly from sleep.

Not that Frankie seemed to notice as she scrambled down from the table. "Daddy! You're awake! Mommy said I had to be _really_ quiet this morning and I was, wasn't I?"

"Yes, you were super quiet," Kara replied, although she shook her head behind Frankie's back. Danny chuckled, not looking up when Kara set down the dishes, moving to the other side of the bed. "What happened to the ducks, though?"

"Oh! My ducks!" Frankie stopped halfway to the bed and doubled back to retrieve her toys from the table.

Danny noticed that the manila envelop from Doctor Scott was now sitting on the kitchen counter. He pushed himself into a seated position. Even if he hadn't left the evidence in plain sight, Kara would have figured it out. She was a med tech for God's sakes. "Anything happen while I was sleeping?"

"Nothing pressing."

Danny turned to look at Kara, trying to recall the last time he saw her with her hair down like this, brushing around her face. Weeks, at least, maybe months. She looked so young - too young for what life had thrown at her. He reached out a finger, brushing some hair off her cheek, noticing a silver strand mixed in with the chestnut. _When had that happened?_ "I should go check in."

"Captain Slattery said that he didn't want to see you before noon but would let us know if anything changed," Kara replied, wiggling until she was leaning against his shoulder. "Did the sleep help?"

Danny considered the question. His head wasn't aching the way it had for days, his body not protesting the very idea of moving, yet the reprieve didn't feel permanent. More like the warm glow after a shower, the kind that lasted half an hour before he returned to being cold. Still, at least he got a solid fifteen hours of merciful blankness, no faces to haunt him. "Definitely."

"You could go talk to Kelly. She's very discrete, Danny. A lot of us go."

 _Kelly_. Kelly Tophet was an enigma, her "rescue" from the Russians shortly after their arrived in Norfolk feeling too easy, too coincidental to Danny. He had spent the next few months waiting for the other shoe to fall, watching her for signs that she was somehow still in contact with the Ruskov. But in the almost three years since her rescue, neither Quincy nor Kelly had done anything to confirm his suspicions. If anything, Kelly's counseling background had been an asset to the camp, with large numbers of the camp inhabitants, including both Kara and Carlton, visiting her on occasion. Her services were so popular, in fact, that Kelly was in the process of training several other civilians to assist her, with one specializing in dealing with the large number of orphaned children.

This wasn't the first time that Kara had made the suggestion that he speak with Kelly, but it was the first time that Danny didn't reject the suggestion out of hand. Talking had always seemed so pointless to Danny - why talk about a future that would never come? But now things were different, now maybe there was a chance. _Now maybe it would help._ "I'll think about it."

"All five little ducks came back!" Frankie jumped onto the bed again, her hands full of plastic ducks. "See, Daddy! I told you they would! The baby ducks _always_ come back."

Danny chuckled. "Yes, they do."

Scooting his arm around Kara, he relaxed against the wall as Frankie began her song again. He wouldn't wait until noon, but he would take fifteen minutes, just fifteen minutes, with his wife and daughter.

 _To remember why it was that he wanted to live._


	8. Numb

_Ch. 8 - Numb_

 _x_

By the time Danny finished donning his hazmat suit and reached the final door separating him from the virus, any lingering contentment from a morning spent with his wife and daughter was long gone. The lethargy had begun the instant he stepped into the command center, arriving at 1030 in blatant disregard of Captain Slattery's orders that he was off duty until 1200, at which point Doctor Scott's sleeping pills would presumably be long gone from his system. But Slattery remained silent, merely raising an eyebrow when Danny walked in the door, before passing him a cup of coffee - or, at least, what was passing for coffee these days.

Weak, stale, often tasting slightly like dirt, the coffee was certainly not the bold, robust blends that the crew had enjoyed back in the Arctic, coffee that Slattery personally selected and stocked in the wardroom. Still, it did contain caffeine and, more importantly, there was something about the ritual of sharing a cup of coffee that felt so ... normal. As though they were about to discuss the weather or a weapons' test rather than the people dying outside of the gates.

"Miss me that much, Green?"

Danny found himself actually cracking a smile. Back on the James, Slattery had the reputation of being a hard-ass. Not a cruel man by any means - the XO was always known for being fair - but a man with no patience for shenanigans, laziness, or excuses. It was only after the world they knew ended, and they were thrust into a new one, filled with death and loss and fear, that another side of Slattery emerged.

From the beginning, Captain Chandler had risen above the chaos, his faith in Doctor Scott and her work inspiring them all to continue the mission, even as the days stretched to months and then the months stretched to years without any breakthrough in the effort to develop a vaccine. Each time they faced a new challenge it was Chandler who galvanized them to move forward, his unwavering belief that they would succeed providing the reassurance that the crew so desperately needed. But for all that he inspired them, Captain Chandler also remained aloof - a leader rather than a friend.

Slattery was different, relatable in a way that Chandler was not. Unlike Captain Chandler, Slattery never hid his struggles, first losing his son to the virus in the Arctic and then spending almost a year searching for his wife and daughters, only to have his wife die mere days after their reunion. Then, after his girls survived under the most unlikely of circumstances, Slattery faced the additional burden of knowing that while the immunity he carried in his blood saved two of his children, it could also be responsible for him outliving every member of his crew. It was a responsibility that Slattery clearly felt keenly, the reason why he insisted on leading so many of the teams that traveled outside the gate, his efforts to reduce the risk to those inside as much as humanly possible.

Danny took a large swallow of the coffee, figuring that he needed to make some kind of excuse for his blatant disregard of orders. "I know I'm not on duty yet, but I wanted to check in to see if there was any news from Rios."

Slattery took a sip of his own coffee, the extended silence making his view of Danny's excuse clear. Finally he nodded. "Lieutenant Burk told me that you know some of these guys. Rios is still outside the gate, so you'll need to gear up to talk to him. Remind Doctor Scott she owes me a report. She's an hour late _and_ she turned off her mic."

"You let her outside the gate?" Danny's shock must have shown on his face because Slattery scowled.

"At times the woman makes a valid point. To give the vaccine a real trial, it's better for her to be out there monitoring. That way she can handle any potential problems in real-time." Given the way the half the room quickly looked away at Slattery spoke, Danny suspected that it had taken more than a logical argument to get Slattery to bend the rules. More likely hours of browbeating.

"Thank you, sir." Draining his cup, Danny slid it into his cubby, the days of having cups washed between each use long gone.

"Oh, and Green?"

Danny forced himself to stop and focus on Slattery. "Yes, sir?"

The sympathy in Slattery's eyes told Danny everything he needed to know about Eddie's condition. "I'm sorry about your friend."

Stepping through the final door, Danny blinked against the bright sunlight. A quick glance around the clearing showed that little had changed from the night before, the majority of the new arrivals spread out across the right side of the clearing while Doctor Scott and Rios moved in and out of a small tent where four cots stood - three now empty and the one containing a too-still figure. Catching sight of Danny, Amber began weeding her way through the crowd, no doubt seeking information on Eddie. Ignoring her for the movement, Danny moved quickly towards Doctor Scott, intent on getting Slattery his report.

Despite the cool temperature, Doctor Scott was sweating in her suit, her hair plastered against her face and her helmet fogged. At least she hadn't taken her suit off, he noted with relief. Doctor Scott wasn't much for orders and Danny wouldn't have put it past the woman to ditch the suit as soon as she got past the outer gate. He nodded to Rios, noting the sour look on the other man's face and wondering what Doctor Scott had done to cause it.

"Captain needs an update," he announced gruffly, his eyes straying to Eddie. The slight rise and fall of the man's chest told Danny that his friend was alive, but the blood dripping from Eddie's nose and the half empty bag of morphine being pumped into his arm did not offer much confidence for his ultimate survival. "You must have turned your mic off by accident."

Doctor Scott pursed her lips before reaching for her mic and snapping it on. "The good news is that the subjects who received the vaccine upon their arrival continue to remain unsymptomatic. I'll do a final blood sample later today but I fully anticipate that it will show that they are virus free."

Danny listened as Slattery shot off a dozen questions rapid fire, before terminating the call. He waited for Doctor Scott to adjust Eddie's IV before asking the question that haunted him all morning, "How is he?"

"He's still fighting," Doctor Scott said finally, her slight hesitation speaking louder than words. "As I explained to Mrs. Ward, the vaccine wasn't designed as a cure so it's use under these conditions is experimental at best..."

"Woah, what?" Danny interrupted.

Doctor Scott pursed her lips, obviously annoyed at the interruption. "Mr. Ward is very sick. Even if the vaccine works, his body may be too damaged to make a full recovery. That's what happened with Mr. Choy. By the time I administered the cure, his body was too sick to make a recovery. But that shouldn't be seen as a failure of the vaccine itself, which wasn't designed for people in this condition."

Danny stared at Doctor Scott, wondering how someone so brilliant could be so dense. " _You told Amber that we had a cure?"_

"Not just Mrs. Ward," Rios muttered, the reason for his sour face now evident. He nodded his head towards the small crowd creeping towards the hospital tent, their fear of the Red Flu apparently warring with their desire to know what was being discussed. "She told all of them."

"They had a right to know that they had been infected," the woman replied briskly. "They were rather concerned until I explained that the gentlemen who died received the placebo. It was the only way for them to understand what was happening."

"Of course you did." The words came out dully, Danny too exhausted to argue with Doctor Scott about the harm of telling these people that they were infected by the deadliest disease in the history of mankind. The risk that they would panic. The risk that someone would decide that death by suicide was far preferable to death by virus and take out the entire group in a hail of bullets. The risk that they would turn on Doctor Scott or, more likely, on Danny - the man who lied to them about everything.

He hadn't given the woman enough credit, though. "Don't worry, Commander Green. I took full responsibility for the shortage in the vaccines."

 _But she_ _wasn't the one who told them that the vaccine might save them. She wasn't the one who gave them the shots. She wasn't the one who chose the four men to receive the placebo, three of whom were now dead._

She wasn't the one who would take the blame. Danny hit his mic. "Captain, we have a potential problem."

After listening to Slattery curse up a storm and being promised an additional guard at the entrance, just in case, Danny switched off his mic. Moving to Eddie's side, he rested his hand on his friend's chest, wondering at the relief that flooded him when he felt the slight movement indicating that Eddie was still breathing. _Was it fair to be glad that Eddie was still alive, when every breath he took was filled with agony?_ Closing his eyes, Danny stood silently, forcing every thought from his mind, forcing himself to be present, to focus only on this last moment with Eddie, imagining Eddie giving him one of those self-deprecating smiles as he gave his trademark goodbye.

 _I'll see you when I see you._

Lifting his hand, Danny gave Eddie a final look before exiting the hospital tent to locate the woman who had been watching him from the moment he exited the compound. _Amber_.

But, surprisingly, it was not Amber who waylaid him but another woman, a brunette dressed in a long-sleeved green shirt over a brown maxi-dress. Tears filled her eyes as she stared at him. " _Why him?"_

That's when it hit him.

 _Silvia Choy_. Wife of David Choy.

Who died while Danny was sleeping.

"I'm sorry." The words fell from his tongue automatically, without thought, and Danny wondered whether they were true. Was he sorry for picking David to receive the placebo? Or simply sorry that he was forced to make a choice at all?

"That's all you have to say?" She hissed, arms waving and Danny backed away discretely, aware of how quickly things could go south. "Doctor Scott said that he wasn't even sick. He got it _after_ we arrived. He could have survived. _So w_ _hy him?"_

She wasn't completely correct - David, like everyone else at the camp, was infected before Danny gave them the vaccines - but her point remained valid. David wasn't one of the two men originally infected. He wasn't on Danny's list of people who wouldn't get the vaccine. Instead he received the placebo by virtue of being one of the last man called. _Just bad luck_. But he couldn't tell her that so, again, he resorted to platitudes. "Priority always goes to children and then parents."

The saliva came out of nowhere, landing on his suit, dripping down his arm, and for a moment Danny's temper snapped. _"And who would you have preferred that I chose? Who here should have died so that your husband could live?"_

The woman froze, her mouth open, the words hanging between them. But before either could speak, Amber appeared between them, another woman at her side. "Silvia, perhaps you should go lie down for a few."

As Silvia allowed herself to be drawn away, whether from shock of Danny's words or the realization that she might have gone too far, Amber gazed down at the spit on Danny's arm. "Can't be the first time that happened."

Danny shrugged. Surprisingly, it was. "Spit happens."

"Yes, Forest." There was almost a teasing glint to Amber's voice, before she sobered. "Eddie got the placebo."

Danny braced himself for the inevitable. "Yeah."

But there was no anger in Amber's eyes as she glanced at Danny, only sadness. "I saw the two of you arguing before Rob got his shot. Eddie told you to give the last one to Rob, didn't he?"

 _What was one more lie in a sea of lies?_ "I made the choice of who to give the placebos to."

Amber gazed at him silently until, finally, tears began welling in her eyes. "You're a terrible liar, Danny."

The statement, so divorced from reality, almost made Danny snort. But Amber's next statement wiped away any humor.

"Why would he do that? Leave us behind?" She whispered. "We have a child too. What about Tyler?"

The anguished statement struck Danny like a knife. He had let Eddie make that decision, even admiring him for acting as the leader that he was. Danny had worried about how Amber would react to the truth, but never thought about what it would do to Amber and Tyler to know that Eddie made the decision to leave them.

 _Just like Benz_.

And just like with Benz, there was nothing to say that it would make it any better.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Then we should draw lots," Elise Simmons repeated, despite the fact that her suggestion had been previously rejected. Everyone had agreed that this first batch of vaccinations was far too valuable to disburse so randomly.

Ignoring her, Father Jeff pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket and placing it on the table. "The Council took a few minutes to make a list of critical personnel at the compound. Our belief is that these people should be vaccinated first, followed by the children."

"Let me see that." Slattery snatched up the piece of paper, his eyes quickly scanning before he folded it again and slid it into his pocket. "I'll take this under advisement. We have roughly seventy doses, right Doctor Scott?"

"That's correct."

"Which leaves us with approximately nine hundred people to be vaccinated? Assuming roughly one hundred are immune?" Slattery continued.

"One hundred twenty-eight are immune, including yourself, Captain Slattery," Doctor Tophet replied. "That leaves nine hundred sixteen people to vaccinate."

"And everyone agrees that Doctor Scott, Doctor Tophet, and Doc Rios need to be vaccinated? Plus that we should hold at least ten doses for cases of in case of accidental exposure?" Everyone nodded in response to Slattery's questions.

"I also suggest that Commander Green and Lieutenant Taylor receive vaccinations now as they have been outside the gates," Doctor Scott suggested.

Danny opened his mouth to protest. _Not without Kara, without Frankie._ He wouldn't - couldn't - take the chance of being left here, alone, if something happened to them.

But Slattery beat him to the punch, no doubt understanding better than anyone else here the downside to immunity - natural or otherwise - and not wanting to have the argument that he knew would be coming here and now. "Both are on the list that the Civilian Council prepared, which I will review shortly. We can then make a final decision."

Before anyone else could respond, Slattery's mic crackled to life. "Bivas to Slattery. We received a message from Captain Chandler. He's on his way in and is requesting perimeter guards."

Danny's blood ran cold. _Perimeter guards_. That meant Captain Chandler thought someone might be trailing him.

 _They'd been found_.


	9. Trust

_Ch. 9 - Trust_

 _x_

"Did he say where he was?" Slattery demanded upon entering the command center, Danny on his heels. Carlton looked up from the map that he and Ravit were examining. One that Ravit found years ago at a gas station in the foothills to the Appalachians, the kind of place that catered to hikers without GPS apparently, because just inside the entrance was a rack of maps for the surrounding states. Those maps had been a god-send since the last working satellite went dark last spring, leaving them dependent on old-school methods of getting around.

"South of Interstate 40, by the river," Carlton replied, pointing to the small blue triangle, indicating the presence of a friendly. "He didn't give much information, Captain. The connection was pretty patchy."

Danny didn't need to look at the map to realize how serious the situation was. Everything south of I-40 was Immune territory, which is why Captain Chandler had gone alone, not wanting to endanger anyone else. There was no way that the Immunes had tracked the Captain back - if he even suspected he had been seen or was being followed, he would have deliberately led the Immunes elsewhere - which meant one of two things. Either the Immunes were expanding their territory yet again, planning another push north, or they had somehow located the compound and this was a targeted attack. But no matter what the Immunes were doing, one thing was obvious.

 _They needed to get the hell out of here._

"Suggest setting up watch at four points along the southern border, sir, as well as two on each of the other approaches." Danny picked up several blue triangles, depositing them at the indicated locations. The eastern approach was almost impassable, but they couldn't discount the possibility that the Immunes would try it anyway in an attempt to encircle the camp.

"Agreed." Slattery reviewed the map while Carlton made the call, directing Wolf to set up an outer perimeter. Once that was done, Slattery picked up a bright pink triangle, setting it on an area roughly ten miles north-west. "I'm going to have everyone prep for evacuation. This will be our primary rally point."

Ravit viewed the map, before selecting a turquoise triangle and setting it on a spot due west. "Suggest putting the secondary rally point here, Captain. If we go north first, then circle back south-west, we should be able to slip behind the Immunes. Make it harder for them to track us."

Slattery considered the option before nodding. "Unexpected. I like it. We'll make a final call on the routes once the sentries report back. Green, make sure that all of the team leaders are briefed."

"Yes, sir." Danny could only hope that the team leaders were up for the task. While this wasn't the first time the order to prepare for evacuation had been given, it _was_ the first time in over a year and moving over a thousand people, more than half of whom were civilians, was no easy task. Even with monthly drills, panic and hysteria were a real risk. They needed to be prepared for all of this to go to hell. _Quickly_. "Is the ultimate destination still Sheridan?"

Located in rural Illinois, Sheridan was another closed military base that Captain Chandler found six months ago during a search for survivors. The trip to Sheridan had taken Chandler and the small team he was travelling with just under a week but, given the size group that they would be moving now, locating enough trucks and gasoline to move everyone at once seemed unlikely. Instead, they would establish a temporary camp at a secondary location and then make several round trips. The entire process could take months.

 _Months of living on the run and hiding from the Ramseys - again._

"Yes," Slattery replied. "Send Cruz and his team to scope out the road and make sure that the base is still unoccupied."

Danny nodded. That left only one loose end. "What about the group outside the gate?"

Slattery grew thoughtful. "You said a couple of them are former military?"

"Yes. They seem organized." That was true of most groups that survived this long. In the years since the Red Flu first hit, people tended to break into small family units, as fear won out over friendship. The few larger groups that they stumbled across these days often had a military backgrounds, people bound not by blood shared but by blood shed, having enough training to survive in the wild, avoiding populated areas as much as possible. "They made it from Massachusetts. Should be able to find the rally point without getting lost."

Carlton was the one to give voice to the obvious concern, given the timing. "It's possible that they tipped off the Immunes."

Danny opened his mouth to respond, intending to defend his friend, but Slattery spoke first. "Seems unlikely. They were headed south when I ran into them, and we know they were coming from New England. Not Immune territory. Besides, they were all infected. If they did tip the bastards off, not sure what they got out of the deal."

"But do we trust them enough to give them the location of the rally point?" Carlton persisted. They all knew the stakes. Leave anyone behind and they were likely to be slaughtered. Trust them with the rally point, and the entire evacuation might be compromised. Putting every person in this camp at risk.

 _Putting Frankie and Kara at risk._

As if running around the Appalachians with a small child, trying to outrun a cult set on their destruction wasn't dangerous enough.

"Send Louie with them," Slattery said finally. "They should be able to take care of themselves. All Louie will need to do is tell them where to go."

It was an unusual, but clever solution. While young, not quite eighteen, Louie was immune and ran no risk of being infected. He was also completely loyal to Slattery, the man who found the teenager eighteen months ago. Living alone in a hospital, Louie had been strung out on something he found in the near-empty shelves, certain that he was the last person in the world. While their initial meeting hadn't gone well - Slattery almost shot the kid after he flung an empty beer bottle at him - once sober, Louie clung to the first healthy people he had seen in nearly six months. Over the past year Slattery occasionally allowed Louie to join the supply runs, and the kid had proven himself to be shrewd and quick on his feet. Louie would have no problem giving someone the slip if he suspected a problem.

"I'll prep him," Danny answered. Nobody mentioned the final complication - how to deal with Eddie. It would be up to the group whether they carried the man or left him behind. Danny pushed away the guilt. He had gotten the group a guide to the rally point. There was nothing else that he could do.

Danny was preparing to leave when he was stopped by Slattery's voice. "Green!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Stop by Doctor Scott's lab and get your shot first. Burk and Bivas, both of you as well." Slattery's voice was steely, his eyes firm, and he held up his hand to forestall any interruption, this speech directed at the entire command center. "I'm giving the same order to everyone in evacuation groups one and two. We'll be outside the gate, which increases the risk of being infected significantly. We _cannot_ take the chance of Doctors Scott and Tophet being left unprotected or you being slowed down by people getting sick. No matter what, we need to make certain that they - and the cure they have developed - make it to a secure location."

Silence filled the room. Evacuation group one, which contained Doctor Scott, was Danny and Kara's group. Evacuation group two, with Doctor Tophet, was Carlton and Ravit's group.

 _Which meant that both Kara and Frankie would receive the vaccine_.

Staggering relief warred with gut-wrenching guilt as Danny's gaze traveled through the command center, taking in the faces of those who weren't in either evacuation group, those who hadn't made the critical persons list. _Those who were facing the real possibility of death, once again._ Except that this time was worse, because this time there was the possibility of a cure dangling just out of reach. And, for the first time, Danny understood the burden that Slattery had carried all of this time.

 _The soul-crushing guilt of imagining everyone around him dead._

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Less than two hours later, having briefed the team leaders, Danny was exiting the compound with Louie, a process that went far more quickly without the need to don a hazmat suit. Taking a deep breath, Danny opened the final gate, stepping outside without protective gear for the first time since he originally entered these doors. The freedom was both liberating and terrifying, despite Doctor Scott's assurances both that these people were no longer contagious, and that the vaccine was immediately effective since it also functioned as a cure.

A claim that was backed up by the eighteen - nineteen if you included Eddie - people standing before him. The first people to survive the Red Flu.

 _Ever_.

Only days earlier Danny had convinced these people to gamble on an untested vaccine created by a doctor who none of them knew. Now it was his turn. His turn to exit the camp. To risk exposure. To wait while Doctor Scott did the blood draw, knowing that if it came out the wrong way, he would never see Kara or Frankie again.

 _A chance to prove to himself that every word out of his mouth for the past two years hadn't been a lie._

For a moment, as he walked towards the group, no hazmat suit in sight, he could see their excitement - their joy - obviously expecting him to finally allow them into the compound that they saw as a safe haven. It took every ounce of Danny's self-control to keep his voice steady as he explained the evacuation plan. Told them that this was all a precaution. Reminded them that it could all be a false alarm. But unlike the last time Danny delivered bad news, this time there was nothing he could say to soften the blow. With each word he watched the excitement on their faces fade, to be replaced by stoic acceptance. These people had survived too many close calls, had seen too many friends die, had been disappointed too many times to believe that this time would be different.

As Danny finished speaking, a silence fell over the group, the difference from the happy chatter of only minutes before stark. Rob Abbott, the de-facto leader with Eddie out of service, was the first to speak. He looked to Louie. "How old are you?"

"Sixty," Louis retorted. "Why? How old are you?"

At that, Rob smirked, suggesting the man had a sense of humor, but his focus didn't waver. "And you're immune?"

Danny stepped closer to Louie. People who had experienced the Ramsey brothers' form of hospitality, which usually involved deliberately infecting those they stumbled across, often painted all immunes with the same brush. Danny answered for the teenager. "He is. And so are you."

A simple nod was Rob's only acknowledgment of Danny's statement, although his words drew a wave of murmurs from the remainder of the survivors as the words sunk in. "Commander Green. I would have thought that putting immune people at the edges of your territory would reduce the risk of anyone in the camp being infected."

Danny didn't answer. Of course Rob was right, and he would see through any pat excuse that Danny offered.

Rob continued after a short silence. "But since Louie is here, I'm going to guess he's underage. How old is he, really? Sixteen?"

Danny mulled his options, deciding that there was little harm in the truth. "Seventeen. Louie's done a number of supply runs. He's young but he knows the area and he's familiar with the rally points. He won't lead you wrong."

Rob tipped his head to the side. "You said that the entire compound is preparing to evacuate."

"That's correct," Danny answered warily.

"That's what? About twelve-hundred people?" Rob asked, his tone too confident, his number a little too accurate to be an actual guess. Danny narrowed his eyes, a slight tell that Rob immediately noticed. "Doctor Scott mentioned how much this place had grown. She's pretty proud of what you built here. The idea of leaving must be devastating."

Fighting to keep his expression neutral despite his irritation, Danny folded his arms. "Do you have a point, _Mr._ Abbott?"

Rob's jaw tightened, the jab at a man Danny knew to be a Gunnery Sergeant not going unnoticed. "I have no doubt that you have exhaustive evacuation plans for this place, plans that you aren't going to tell me. That's fair. But it's not much of a leap to say that we're better off traveling with you than by ourselves." A glance around the group showed several people nodding, an indication of the trauma that they had gone through over the past few years. "So I'm offering you a trade, Commander. Me, Ted, Devon, and Simon, we're Marines. We could head out, join the front line. And like you said, we're immune now so that's got to count for something."

Danny watched as the three other men stepped forward to stand next to Rob, signalling their agreement to the proposal. Rob was right about one thing, they _were_ short-staffed, especially with Cruz and his team scouting out the road. And even a single lookout could be the difference between a successful evacuation and a bloodbath, a lesson that Danny had learned the hard way.

"And in exchange?" Danny asked, expecting Rob to demand the location of the rally points.

"You let everyone else inside - including Eddie - and you take them with you when you leave."

A simple request, but one that forced the very issue that Slattery had sought to avoid. _Could they trust these people?_ "You were Eddie's sergeant back in the day?"

"Yup. Scout snipers, part of the First Second out of Lejeune. Done tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. All four of us." Rob held Danny's gaze.

 _Snipers_. With Kara and now Ravit off the front lines, they could use a few marksmen. "Give me a minute to talk to the Captain."

Taking a few steps away, Danny relayed the offer to Slattery, listening as Burk and Slattery battered the idea back and forth.

As expected, Burk was cautious. "Are you sure we can trust them? Could be an excuse to get someone on the inside."

"Nah," Slattery replied. "If they wanted inside, getting sick wasn't the way to do it."

"Have to agree with the Captain," Danny added. "Besides, no point getting inside when we're leaving."

"You know them best, Green. What's your take? They legit?"

Danny found his eyes straying to Eddie, the promise he made rolling around and around in his head.

 _And you'll take care of them?_

 _Yeah._

 _Promise me._

 _I promise._

Eddie trusted Danny to take care of his wife and son. Now it was Danny's turn to trust Eddie. "Yes, sir, I think they're legit."

A moment of silence followed before Slattery spoke, his voice firm, his decision final. "Do it. Take them through decontamination and have them wait in Doctor Scott's lab, just in case. Oh, and let Wolf know he's getting reinforcements."

"What about Ward?" Danny asked. "He's still sick. Doctor Scott said he shouldn't be contagious but..."

Surprisingly, Burk was the one to answer. "Put him in a suit. If it can keep the virus out, it can keep it in, too."

"Done." Turning off his mic, Danny turned back to Rob, holding out his hand. "We have a deal."

For the briefest of moments, Rob's mask faltered, his eyes flaring with relief, before he took the offered hand. "Everyone get your stuff! Looks like we're moving out!"

As the group began moving, Danny tightened his hold on Rob's hand, dropping his voice to a whisper. "I just went out on a limb for you. But if you double cross us, I swear that the last thing you will see before you die is me slitting your throat."

Rob stared back, eyes not wavering, before speaking. "I won't double-cross you. I owe you."

 _And there it was_. The gratitude, the thanks, the appreciation. None of it earned or deserved or warranted. Danny ground his teeth together. "That was all Doctor Scott. She was the one to find the cure. I was just the delivery boy."

"I can never thank Doctor Scott enough for what she did, but that's not what I meant." Rob's voice dropped, keeping the conversation between the two men. "You were the one who decided who got the real shot and who didn't. You picked me. I have a wife. Two little girls. You gave me a chance to see them grow up. So, like I said, I owe you."

His eyes drifting to the cot where Eddie still lay, Danny felt his throat grow tight. "And like _I_ said, I'm just the messenger."


	10. Alligator Purse

_Ch. 10 - Alligator Purse_

 _x_

Danny moved swiftly through the camp, heading directly to the small cabin where he, Kara, and Frankie had been living for over a year. As expected, the place was empty, the small go bags that remained packed at all times missing from their spot next to the door. It was obvious that Kara had been here and gone already.

Knowing that every minute was critical, Danny headed towards the door, only to hesitate, taking one last look around the cabin. Despite the decrepit interior and hand-made furniture, there was a cheerfulness to the place. Colorful pictures, all carefully labeled and dated, hung on the wall. A quilt made from their worn out uniform was folded neatly across the bed. Frankie's plastic ducks spilled out of the toy box that took up one corner. In spite of the lack of, well, anything to work with, Kara had somehow turned the cabin into a home. Trading or bartering for things that they needed. Swapping her last AAA battery for the stuffed pony that Frankie still insisted on sleeping with. Pulling extra shifts for a week so he and Carlton had time to white-wash the crumbling plank walls. He still didn't know how she managed to acquire the cocktail dress she wore for their third wedding anniversary or the bottle of wine they shared that evening. Everything here had meaning. Everything had memories. Hell, even the metal dishes stacked neatly in the small kitchen cabinets reminded him of hundreds of meals eaten here as a family.

 _And chances were that they would never see this place again._

Danny slammed his fist into the table he and Carlton built out of old planks, the woodworking class that Danny took in ninth grade for the easy A finally coming in handy. He remembered how accomplished he felt that day, having made something for his family with his own two hands. Now it was just another thing to leave behind, along with the quilt and the toys and the dishes. They would be moving on foot, carrying only the bare necessities, and all of this - all of this _stuff_ \- would just weigh them down.

Shaking out his arm, ignoring the ache in his hand, Danny stalked out the door. It was just a table, just a house. The important things - the only things that mattered - were Kara and Frankie and he still had them.

 _For now._

Ten minutes later Danny entered the lodge, weaving his way through the gathered crowd. The first twenty-five groups, made up of almost six hundred people, were gathered here, waiting for the signal to depart. The first five groups were filled with priority evacuees but, after that, it was luck of the draw. As each group departed another would take its place here in the common room until, if all went as planned, all fifty-five groups met again at the rally point. Of course, that assumed they had the twelve hours necessary for an orderly evacuation. If not, this entire operation became a free-for-all. Danny paused as two small girls darted past him, some of the orphans from group twenty-two, singing a song that he vaguely recalled his sister singing when they were kids.

 _Miss Susie had a baby, his name was Tiny Tim, she put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim..._

Around him the groups shifted restlessly, packs held close, children held closer. Their eyes followed his every step, filled with questions that he couldn't answer. _Was this really it? Were they, once again, on the run? And who were they running from this time? Granderson's people? The Immunes? Or some new threat they knew nothing about?_ Danny kept moving, checking that each group was ready, speaking with the team leaders to confirm the various route. But even as he did, half his attention remained on the crowd, searching for signs of panic - like the sound of a woman sobbing.

Moving towards the sound as inconspicuously as possible, Danny was caught completely off-guard by the sight before him. Kat Nolan sat on the ground, head buried in her arms, bawling her eyes out while Kara attempted to quiet her. Instead of dealing with his obviously upset girlfriend, Ray Diaz stood with his back to the two women talking to his friends Colin and Cody. Danny narrowed his eyes on the young men, wondering what the hell was going on. Of all the groups that Danny worried about breaking down, Group Seven was not on the list. Ray and Kat and their crew were tight, having made the trek here all the way from Alabama by themselves, after the adults at their summer camp deserted them. If Group Seven was breaking down, this evacuation was screwed.

Danny crouched down before the teenager. "Kat?" When there was no answer forthcoming, Danny looked to Kara. "What's going on?"

There was a moment of hesitation, one so slight that nobody else would have noticed, before Kara softly spoke. "Doctor Scott just gave Kat her shot."

Instantly, Danny understood. Kat was on the list. Ray, and the rest of Group Seven, were not.

 _He ate up all the water, he ate up all the soap, he tried to eat the bathtub but it didn't fit down his throat..._

Danny's eyes met Kara's and clung. This was the beginning of the divide, worse than natural immunity, because that was a simple genetic lottery. You were either immune or you weren't. Nothing you could do to change it either way. But this - the vaccine list - it was different. Being on that list meant that you were special. It meant that your life had more value. _Chosen_ as the Ramseys would say. _Willing to sacrifice others_ , as Amy Granderson had taught them.

Kat raised red-rimmed eyes, staring at something - or someone - behind Danny. "She should have saved it for the kids."

 _God he hated this._ Danny fought the urge to punch another table, the unfairness of it all eating away at him. What kind of God would give them a cure for the Red Flu, but not give them enough for everyone?

Closing his eyes for a moment, Danny forced himself to speak. "Listen to me, Kat. That shot? It could save one child, but saving you could mean saving hundreds or even thousands of children. You know how to make the vaccine. That's why Doctor Scott gave you the shot and not someone else."

Kat shook her head, tears continuing to roll down her face. "But I don't! Doctor Scott is a genius! I wouldn't know where to start."

 _Miss Susie called the doctor, the doctor called the nurse, the nurse called the lady with the alligator purse..._

She was drawing too much attention from the surrounding groups, the murmuring growing louder. "Yes you do, Kat. You've worked with Doctor Scott for close to two years now. Push comes to shove, you know you could do it. We all believe in you." Danny paused before raising his voice slightly. "Isn't that right, Diaz?"

Ray jumped, obviously not expecting to be pulled into the conversation. Still, he hesitated only for seconds. "Commander's right, Kat. You can totally do it."

"But..."

"No buts. You guys managed to avoid the Immunes before, you can do it again. First sign of danger, your entire group goes to ground. Hole up. Soon as it's safe, you make contact with Cruz. Book it to the nearest safe area and start making that cure yourself and then start spreading it." Danny turned to look over his shoulder. "You understand me, Diaz?"

"Yes, sir!"

One down, one to go. Danny's attention swung back to the girl before him. "Kat?"

The silence stretched as Kat looked around the room, her eyes coming to stop on Ray. Finally she nodded, wiping her eyes and letting Ray pull her to standing. "Got it, Commander."

 _In came the doctor, in came the nurse, in came the lady with the alligator purse..._

Nodding her head towards the back of the room, Kara began moving towards the small table where Darien Chandler sat with her own two children and Frankie, who was coloring a picture. Danny trailed after his wife.

"You did a good thing there," Kara murmured when they were several yards away from Kat and Ray. "She needed to hear that. More importantly, Ray needed to hear that."

Danny shrugged, his eyes fixed on his daughter. _Was it Kat he was trying to convince? Or himself? Justifying why his family was safe when hundreds of others were not._ "She was getting pretty worked up. Last thing we need is people panicking."

Kara's eyes flickered with an emotion that Danny didn't recognize. "Are we really leaving then?"

"Looks that way." Danny grabbed Kara's wrist, drawing her to a halt. "You and Frankie got your shots?"

"Yes. Had to bribe Frankie with that last lollipop."

"We'll get more on the road," Danny answered absently as he surveyed his group. They were ready. Even Doctor Scott was here, fussing over her equipment. They had all seen first-hand what happened to those who waited too long to leave. "You have the hiking pack for Frankie?"

After what happened to Debbie, Danny wasn't taking any chances. It would be far too easy to lose a three-year-old in the chaos and he wasn't sure that Kara could survive that kind of loss.

He knew that he couldn't.

 _Measles said the doctor, mumps said the nurse, nothing said the lady with the alligator purse..._

"I brought it. But she's over forty pounds now so I had to par down your pack to make up the difference." Kara looked away and Danny knew, without having to ask, that Kara had been forced to remove something critical to balance out Frankie's weight gain. But what wasn't critical these days? Ammo v. food v. antibiotics. Choose wrong and you were dead.

 _Russian roulette, Red Flu style._

"I can handle an extra ten pounds."

"Danny, you're already carrying over a hundred pounds..." Kara paused suddenly. "The hazmat suits. We don't need them anymore."

Their old suits, the ones from the Nathan James, long since replaced by the sturdier suits from the CDC but stored in the go bags for emergencies. Those had to weigh at least ten pounds. "Give them to Ray."

"I'll get them." Kara took only a step before pausing and turning back. "You should talk to Carlton. It's about Ravit."

Danny scowled, searching the crowd until he located Carlton talking with Rios. "She got her shot, right?"

Kara smiled almost ruefully. "That's the issue. He's worried that the vaccine will hurt the baby."

Danny blinked. Doctor Scott developed a vaccine for the deadliest disease known to man and Carlton was worried about the _shot?_ "More than Ravit being dead will hurt the baby?"

Kara's lips curled. "Ravit said the same thing. But you know Carlton."

Danny nodded absently. Carlton would pull it together. He always did. "I'll talk to him."

Kara stepped closer, her hand brushing against his shoulder as though straightening his uniform. "Danny. If things go south and we get separated..."

He refused to listen to this. "That will not happen."

"But if it does," she held up a hand to stop his protest, " _If it does_ , I want you to promise me that you'll keep going. That you'll take Frankie and keep going. That you won't throw away your life hunting for me if I don't make the rally point."

 _There wasn't a chance in hell he was agreeing to that._ "Kara..."

His radio crackled. "Green and Burk, need you at the command center now."

Slattey's terse order left Danny both relieved and frustrated at the interruption. _As though he would ever agree to leave Kara out there on her own._

"I'll get the suits and Frankie," Kara said quietly, understanding what this summons likely meant. _It was time to go._

Danny caught Carlton's eye, both men moving towards the door. "On our way."

 _Out went the doctor, out went the nurse, out went the lady with the alligator purse..._

But Slattery wasn't done. "Oh, and bring Kat with you."

Well _that_ was unexpected. Danny looked to Carlton, who appeared as confused as he was.

"Kat Nolan?"

"Yup." Slattery's voice remained clipped. "Captain Chandler is back, and he brought a guest. Guy named Tex. He claims to be Kat's father. And boy does he have a whopper of a story to tell."


	11. Dust

_Ch. 11 - Dust_

 _x_

 _"Dad!"_

Until the moment that Kathleen Nolan threw herself into the arms of a rather scruffy looking man with a beard down to his chest and a leather vest reminiscent of an old western - _Duck Dynasty in the flesh_ \- Danny didn't actually believe that this guy was her father. After all, four years had passed since the man told Kat to meet him here. Unless Papa Nolan was coming from the other side of the world, that was a suspiciously long time to be missing even with the world gone to hell.

"Katie." The man's voice was thick with emotion, and his red eyes quickly gave way to actual tears. He placed his hands on each side of Kat's head, holding her still while he looked her up and down. "You've grown up."

"It's been six years, Dad," Kat replied shortly. "And nobody calls me Katie anymore. It's Kat."

 _Six years?_ The Red Flu only hit four years ago. Danny glanced at Slattery, wondering if the other man noticed the discrepancy. Upon Kat's arrival they had quizzed her about her father - anyone who knew where this base was located had to be considered a risk - but nobody had thought to ask the girl when the last time she saw him was, apparently.

Danny tried to remember Duck Dynasty's name, but the information was lost somewhere in the recesses of his brain. Obviously it hadn't seemed important at the time. Now, every detail felt critical. The timing of the guy's appearance was suspicious, showing up days before the Immunes began beating the bushes but, then again, the same could be said about Eddie. And the guy's emotional reaction to seeing his daughter certainly felt genuine. Plus, he _had_ basically carried Captain Chandler into the camp, the CO having taken a shot to the leg at some point during his sojourn. Rios was currently bandaging the man up in the corner, after his demands that Captain Chandler follow him to the camp hospital were ignored. Still...

 _One_ _mistake. Sending Alisha back for the radio equipment. Taking his eyes off Debbie. Letting Frankie run down the stairs._

Clenching his hands into fists, Danny forced the memories, the faces, away. He needed to focus on the present, or else more people would die.

"Kat, huh? Guess I'll have to get used to that." Duck Dynasty smiled, his entire focus still on his daughter. "I'm so sorry about your mom."

Kat froze, pulling away to stare up at her father. "You found her?"

For the first time, the man appeared uncertain, one hand moving to stroke his beard. "Weren't you there with her?"

"No, I was at summer camp when people started getting sick. Mom called and said to stay put until she came to get me. Cort was going to stock the farm and we were going to wait out the Red Flu there. Then you called to say I should come here. When Mom didn't show, I knew that something happened but I was still hoping..." Kat trailed off. "Anyway, when she didn't come to get me like she promised, we came here instead."

"Who is we?" Tex demanded.

"The kids with me at summer camp," Kat rushed to explain. Her case flickered to Ray, who was standing uncomfortably to the side, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Holding out her hand, she intertwined her fingers with her boyfriend. "Ray, this is my dad, Ken Nolan, but everyone calls him Tex. Dad, my boyfriend, Raymond Diaz. We were at the camp together. We came up here together. That's when we ran into Captain Chandler and everybody."

Tex's eyes widened, then narrowed. "You came here alone? Except for that...boy there?"

Kat rolled her eyes. "No, Dad, there was a group of us. Kids from the camp."

"Seemed too risky to go home, sir." Ray's eyes were darting everywhere except for Tex, clearly out of his element, but he didn't let go of Kat's hand. "I'm from Miami, and you said to stay away from cities. We figured this place was our safest bet."

 _Stay away from cities?_ That sounded like something that Doctor Scott would have said, as opposed to something that a former jarhead would know.

"You said that you found Mom?" Kat said quietly, interrupting the interrogation. Tex's face softened, and Danny sensed that Nolan was struggling to find the right words. Not that any of them really thought Kat's mother might still be alive. There was very little that would tear a mother away from her child, and given the circumstances, death was a pretty solid bet. Still, the details were never pretty.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. Took me almost a year to get out of Cuba," Tex explained.

This time Danny caught Slattery's gaze, raising an eyebrow. _Cuba?_ That had to mean Gitmo. Terrorism central. Who was Tex Nolan? Naval intelligence? CIA? Some other black ops group? _Or just a really good liar?_

"My first stop was Tampa. I figured that I could restock and check the house in case you left a note or something. That's where I found your mom. Looked like a break-in. No sign of you or Cort, so I figured two of you made it out and came up here."

"I haven't seen Cort since I left home for summer camp." Kat looked away, brushing away the tears on her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Do you think he left her there?"

Tex seemed surprised. "Cort? Nah. He was a good man. And your mom, if there's better place, she's in it. That woman was a saint..."

"For putting up with you," Kat finished, a giggle escaping her.

Slattery cleared his throat, interrupting the family reunion. "I can appreciate how happy you are to see your daughter again, Nolan. But we're got a few other pressing concerns. We're getting ready to evacuate this camp so any intel that you and Captain Chandler can share about what the Immunes are up to would be pretty damn useful right about now."

Captain Chandler smiled, a real smile, the kind that Danny recalled seeing in the Arctic, back when the mission was temporary and Danny's worst fear was that he and Kara would get caught kissing in a closet. Danny tried to remember the last time that Captain Chandler smiled that way. Months definitely, years probably. Whatever the CO was about to share, it was good. "Don't worry XO, they don't know where we are. They're out there beating the bushes looking for Tex and me but I'm confident that we gave them the slip."

Tex chuckled. "Left them a nice trail leading right through a grove of poison oak before circling around south."

Slattery's eyes narrowed. "Then why tell us to prep for evacuation?"

Captain Chandler stood despite Rios's protest. "Turns out that this Camp was built here for a reason. It was the cover for an underground bunker being constructed less than fifteen clicks southwest. Back during the Cold War, Congress apparently got it into their heads that they wanted a bomb shelter for them and their families in case of nuclear war. Totally secure space with room for a thousand people."

Captain Chandler's announcement was met with dead silence. The news seemed too good to possibly be true. An underground bunker. A _secret_ underground bunker. One that could house almost all of them, hidden deep in the woods where the Immunes would never find them.

 _And pigs could fly._

"You sure that it's there?" Slattery asked, his voice cautious.

Captain Chandler nodded. "After we lost Ramseys' men, Tex and I checked out the entrance. As far as we could tell from the outside, the place is intact and empty. We tried the intercom but no answer. Of course, that could go two ways. Figured that we better wait for your team to clear it."

 _Two ways._ Either the bunker could be the shelter that they so needed - or it could be a deathtrap, filled with the dead and infected.

"Actually, we made some progress on that front while you were gone," Slattery replied, his words carefully chosen.

Captain Chandler's head snapped up. "Doctor Scott has a vaccine?"

Slattery gazed pointedly at Tex, drawing a mulish look from Chandler. "He saved my life, Mike."

"That doesn't mean we can trust him," Slattery replied shortly. He glanced at Tex. "No offense meant, Nolan, just being careful."

Tex slung an arm over Kat's shoulder. "Hell, you can say what you want about me. You kept my little girl alive. Nothing I can do to repay that."

Encouraged by Slattery's caution, Danny threw in his own question. "Even if the bunker is empty, wouldn't it be better to go north now that the Immunes are getting closer? Once we're inside, we are sitting ducks. All they need to do is surround us and then they could starve us out or pick us off one by one. Illinois is safer."

 _But was it really?_ The logistics of moving over a thousand people safely across multiple states and around an unknown number of hot spots, all the while running the risk of tipping off the Immunes, were staggering. Danny's mind flashed back to the hundreds of people waiting, even now, for word of whether they were about to start evacuating - Kara and Frankie among them. _Which was safer - running or hiding?_

"The Immunes don't know about this place," Captain Chandler replied confidently, grinning at Tex.

Slattery looked between both men and when he spoke there was a definite edge to his voice. "You two want to fill me in?"

"That's how I met the Commodore here. We both decided that it was a good time to break into the new presidential palace," Tex explained, his eyes dancing with merriment. "Captain Chandler's pretty quick with his gun, I'll give him that. We had ourselves a Mexican standoff for a bit. But once we got to talking, we realized that we were on the same team. Got rid of a few pieces of paper and here we are."

Danny stared at the man, wondering whether he really was insane. He almost sounded like he was having _fun_. As though this was all a lark, rather than life and death. But it was something else that Tex had said which caught Danny's attention. "Presidential palace?"

Captain Chandler sobered. "Immunes have this guy named Jeffrey Michener set up as the President of the United States. He was the Secretary of the Interior before the Red Flu hit and, according to Ramsey anyway, he was next in line for succession."

 _The President of the United States was an Immune?_

"Is he legit?" Slattery demanded.

Chandler nodded grimly. Danny felt a chill spread through his limbs. "What does that make us? Fugitives?"

"No. We have to assume that the President is being coerced. Once the civilians are safe in the bunker, rescuing him should be one of our top priorities," Captain Chandler said firmly and, for the first time, Tex seemed to disagree, his gaze dropping to his toe scrapping across the floor. "Besides, we aren't the only people who rejected the Ramseys' bullshit. There is full-fledged war raging in Europe and they are facing strong resistance from local groups in New England and California. Immunity gave the Ramseys the upper hand. Without that, they don't stand a chance."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ninety minutes later, Danny was picking his way through the thick foliage behind Tex, Captain Slattery's final command still ringing in his ears.

 _Watch him._

The words rattled around his head as Danny scanned the path before them, hoping like hell that he wasn't leading his five-man team into an ambush. _That at the end of the day there wouldn't be more blood on his hands_. Of course, if they were moving into an ambush, chances were good that he would be dead by the end of the day too. So, at least he wouldn't know how badly he screwed up.

"Cuba, huh?" Danny asked when Tex took a sip of his water, which required the man to stop talking for a full ten seconds. Tex's running commentary had covered everything from Kim Kardasian to his feelings about the various Bond girls. But despite the non-stop chatter, Tex had managed to avoid saying a single thing about who he was, where he was from, or what his plans for the future were. Ken "Tex" Nolan reminded Danny a bit of Smith, actually. Loyal to a fault but perfectly willing to bend the rules to get where he needed to go. The problem for Danny was that he didn't know Tex's end goal, and whether their interests aligned or conflicted.

"Yup. I was at Gitmo when the world went to hell," Tex confirmed. "You in the Arctic with the Commodore?"

 _The Arctic._ Funny how long ago that felt. A different life. A different man. One who still believed that people were fundamentally good. "Yup. Didn't know anything was wrong until we tried coming back."

"You got family at the camp?" Tex's voice didn't change, and Danny wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or grateful that the man asked the question in the same tone he used to discuss the absurdity of Denise Richards portraying a nuclear physicist.

"Wife and daughter," Danny replied. "Rest of my family was in Connecticut."

"Lucky you found them," Tex replied, and Danny wondered whether he was thinking about Kat's mother.

He nodded, his mind wandering to his own parents, his siblings, searching his memory for the last time he spoke to his mother, his younger brother. Sometime before leaving for the Arctic, certainly, but the details were lost in the haze. Danny forced his attention back to the present, to the task at hand. "Kara was in the Arctic with me."

Tex gave a wolf whistle. "You dog! I wouldn't have guessed you for a rule breaker. You seem more like the stick-up-his-ass kind."

"I can't believe I'm working with you," Danny muttered, about to throw in a few additional choice words when Tex abruptly stopped.

"There's the door."

Without someone pointing it out, Danny never would have found the small entrance, hidden as it was in a small hill between the trees. For the first time, Danny allowed himself to believe that this place might just be what they needed - a safe place to hide. "This place better be what you're promising."

Tex cleared the overgrowth away from the door, allowing him to push it open just enough for a single person to slide through. "Time to see if that doctor of yours is all she's cracked up to be."

"She is," Danny replied. At Tex's curious look, he added, "If she wasn't, I'd be hacking up blood right now."

After giving directions to his team to set up a perimeter, Danny took a deep breath, squeezing through the small space into a narrow corridor, Tex on his heels. As they approached an interior door - this one opened without protest - Danny couldn't help but wonder at the lack of security.

"Bomb shelter, remember?" Tex commented, reading Danny's mind while he scanned the walls for a light switch. The florescent lights flickered to life, the buzzing drowning out the sound of their footsteps down the long, empty hallway. "They figured that everyone outside was dead anyway."

"Still, you'd think there would be some sort of passcode," Danny began, only to be cut off.

"1950s. Long before electronic locks were the thing."

At the end of the hall was another door, one that squealed when Tex pushed it open, the bolts rusted from lack of use. Moving through the entrance, Danny began coughing, the stale air and decades of accumulated dust practically choking him. After locating the light switch, Danny determined that they were in a large space filled with shelves and tables. The room appeared to be a cafeteria of some sort and, as Danny took a step forward, he realized that the shelving was stacked with what appeared to be industrial size food cans. Tex grabbed one of the cans, tossing it in his hand as they moved towards the door directly across the space.

"Fifty year old creamed corn," he noted. "Think it's any good?"

Still coughing, Danny glowered at Tex. "Did those plans you found mention how big this place was?"

"About 20,000 square feet," Tex said, whistling. "Hope you brought your walking shoes."

Two hours and roughly forty rooms later, having found nothing but dust, dust, and more dust, the question that had been on the tip of Danny's tongue since the moment Tex arrived slipped out. "What took you so long to get here?"

Tex paused, and Danny wondered whether he would answer. "How old's your girl?"

"Almost four."

"That's a good age. Katie was the cutest thing back then, running around in a tutu claiming to be a flamingo." Tex smiled, lost in a memory. When he looked up, his eyes were dead serious. "Guys like you and me, we aren't the kind of dads who are going to be home every night for dinner. We aren't good with homework or remembering not to swear in front of the kids. The one thing we can do is make sure that our kids are safe. So that's what I did. Made sure that none of those assholes would ever find my little girl."

And, just like that, Danny understood why Captain Chandler trusted Tex. Not because Tex saved his life, but because they were both fathers, and he knew. _He knew that there was no limit to what Tex would do to keep his daughter safe._ "You really destroy everything showing that this place existed?"

Tex smirked. "Oh, Connecticut, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."


	12. Crates

_Ch. 12 - Crates_

 _x_

"You didn't see anything hinky?" Slattery demanded.

As always, Carlton smirked at the Commander's choice of words. Danny fought the urge to role his eyes. It had been a long time since he found Slattery's juvenile vocabulary to be a source of humor. "The dust was out of control, sir. No way to fake that. The place hadn't been touched in at least ten years."

"And Nolan didn't say anything suspicious?" Slattery continued, his brow furrowed.

Danny glanced at Carlton, who shrugged. "Nolan is definitely hiding things, sir, but on this he was straight-up. Nobody's been there."

Captain Chandler folded his arms across his chest, nodding firmly. "Told you XO. This is our best bet."

Danny wasn't surprised to find out that there had been a conversation between the two commanders that neither he nor Carlton were privy too. Captain Chandler trusted their loyalty, their skill, even their judgment. If he hadn't, neither Danny nor Carlton would be here. But for all of that, they were not equals. When push came to shove, Captain Chandler saw Carlton and Danny and Kara and Ravit as his responsibility, one that he took seriously. That was the reason that Captain Chandler went on the most dangerous missions alone. He wanted - _no, needed_ \- to protect the men and women under his command. And not simply from the risk of infection, but also from the knowledge of just how bad it was out there.

Danny understood because he felt the same. That was the reason he met each new group of survivors when they arrived outside the gate, rather than sending Wolf or Cruz or Diaz to do the job. Watching the men and women he commanded die was devastating. But seeing the fear, the horror in their eyes as they saw what was waiting for them - as they saw men, women, and children suffering from a virus that showed no mercy - that loss of innocence was almost as bad.

 _There was more than one kind of death._

"I agree with Captain Chandler," Danny spoke. "The bunker is no more vulnerable than this location, fewer entrances and far better hidden. Security isn't worth shit but we can beef that up."

"How about you Burk, you vote for Sheridan or the bunker?" Captain Chandler asked, turning to the other man. Danny admired that about Chandler, his ability to make them all feel like their input was valuable. Drawing them out, getting them to open up and speak naturally. It was one of the reasons why Captain Chandler was such a good leader. He asked what other people thought. He listened. He cared. _Or at least he did a good job pretending._ He acted as though this was a democracy, when in reality it was anything but. Captain Chandler could elect to stay here - against all common sense and logic - and nobody would openly defy him. Hell, nobody except the XO would even question him. Because as crazy as Chandler's ideas sometimes seemed, he seemed to pull off the impossible.

 _He was the reason that Doctor Scott still had a laboratory, allowing her to develop the cure._

 _He was the reason that the crew remained together upon reaching Norfolk, convincing those with families flung across United States that they were better off waiting for the cure before searching out their loved ones._

 _He was the one who trusted Smith, without any basis, when he said that this Camp buried in the Appalachians would keep them safe._

 _He was the reason that they were alive._

No, not all of them, but Captain Chandler was right more often than he was wrong. At times Danny almost hated the man for his ability to stir up hope, to make Danny want to believe, when giving up would have been so much easier. But every time he saw his daughter, he understood what drove the man.

 _Darian. Ashley. Sam._

Captain Chandler couldn't give up any more than Danny could, leaving his children behind to face this hell on earth alone.

"Bunker," Carlton replied. His eyes slipped towards Danny with a look that Danny couldn't translate. _Strange_. After years of working and living together, Danny thought that he could read Carlton better than anyone. "It will take weeks to get to Sheriden, and moving so many people is bound to attract Immune attention. With a bunker we can send groups one at a time, at night. With a little luck, they won't have any clue what we are doing."

Carlton's plan was solid. One that Danny should have suggested. But his brain refused to cooperate, unable to stop spinning long enough to focus.

"It will still take several days to fully evacuate," Danny interjected. "Moving the children will take the longest, especially in the dark. And it's going to be noisy. We may attract attention whether we want to or not."

"I have an idea about that," Captain Chandler said, exchanging glances Slattery. _Oh yes, those two had spoken_. This meeting was simply a formality. "We're going to give the Immunes something else to focus on. Captain Slattery will coordinate the evacuation while I take a small team down south and attract a little bit of Immune attention. Plan is to play peek-a-boo and keep them going for a few days. That should give you time to move everyone to the bunker. Then my team will hightail north, making them think that we are headed towards Illinois."

Not quite a suicidal plan, but close enough. Danny spoke without hesitation. "I volunteered to go."

After all, with Captain Slattery back there was no need for him to handle the evacuation.

"Request denied." Captain Chandler's voice was firm, leaving no room to argue. "You too Burk, in case you are about to make the same statement. You have a kid arriving at any minute. Not a good time to play hide-and-seek. Besides, I'll have Nolan with me and Cosetti and Mandelsohn volunteered to join us."

 _Mandelsohn?_ The kid couldn't be more than twenty. And although Cosetti was a decent sailor he was also, for lack of a better word, an anxious mess. Neither had ever done more than a local supply run. "Sir, I have to protest. They aren't ready. They've barely been outside the gate before."

Captain Chandler's eyebrow rose. "Both have done more than the required seven training missions and now with Doctor Scott's vaccine, we don't have to worry about becoming infected. That will make it far easier to evade the Immunes. They'll be expecting us to avoid populated areas. So we won't."

 _Which mean getting an up close and personal view of what happened to people who weren't lucky enough to evade the Immunes._

"Sir, I really think..."

Captain Chandler's hand rose. "Protest noted, Commander Green, but the decision has been made. Now go prepare the first three teams to move as soon as the sun sets."

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"Green!"

Barely reigning in his temper, Danny turned to Slattery. "Yes, sir."

The words were clipped enough to draw a scowl from Captain Slattery. "You're burned out."

"Captain!" Danny protested, but Captain Slattery stopped him with a raised hand.

"Truthfully we all are. Hell, before this damn plague any one of us would have been pulled off of active duty and permanently benched after a quarter of the shit that we've been through over the past four years. The fact that you're still kicking shows just how tough you are, Green. But we all have our breaking point. I know that I did."

There was no need for Slattery to elaborate. Both of them vividly remembered the night that Slattery sat next to his dying wife, holding her hand and sobbing, convinced that his daughters would be next. Morning might have brought a miracle for Whitney and Shaylyn Slattery, but watching his wife suffer and die took something from Slattery that he would never get back. Danny often wondered what Slattery might have done had things gone differently that night. Whether Slattery, like Benz, might have chosen a different path.

"I'm one of the lucky ones, sir," Danny argued, but unable to keep a note of bitterness out of his voice. _Lucky_. "I still have my family."

"We've all lost people," Slattery replied, voice soft. "Benz, Berchem, Smith. Don't think I don't understand what losing them was like for you. No different than me losing Garnett or Jeter. They weren't just my fellow senior officers. They were my friends. Closer in some ways than my own family. I certainly saw more of them."

Slattery's attempt at humor fell flat, the two men staring at each other. Slattery blinked first.

"This isn't a race to the bottom, Green, trying to figure out who has it worst. I lost my wife and son but my daughters survived. You lost your team and probably your parents but gained a wife and daughter. Ravit lost every single person she knew before this plague hit, but found Carlton. _All_ of us lost something. There's no point in comparisons." Slattery paused, and his next words were clearly a command. "Once we get everyone to that bunker, you're off duty for two weeks with a mandatory counseling session. And before you protest, no, you are not the only one being singled out and, no, Captain Chandler is not going to reverse my position. We've decided that going forward all senior officers will be required to have monthly psych evaluations, along with PT assessments, in order to remain on active duty."

 _Damn_. Slattery was a sneaky bastard, knowing that Danny couldn't very well protest too much when Captain Chandler had already agreed. Ignoring Slattery's grin - the one that clearly said _got you_ \- Danny managed to choke out a single word.

"Understood."

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Danny's foot tore through the crate, his blood pressure spiking even further as he struggled to free himself from the jagged hole without ruining his boot. It's not like there was a PX where he could get more.

Carlton leaned against the side of the building, arms crossed, unmoved by Danny's outburst. "You done?"

"What the hell, Carlton? They totally cut us out," Danny seethed. "And as if being kicked off the mission wasn't bad enough, I'm now _benched_?"

"Not benched. Given _leave_ ," Carlton stressed the word. "Leave that you should have received four years ago. When my time comes you better believe that I am taking every last second."

Learning that Carlton was not being given the same "leave" had done nothing to improve Danny's piss-poor mood. Sure he understood that Carlton was scheduled to take time off when the baby arrived instead, and Slattery implied that both of them were subject to the new mandatory counseling rule, but still, the knowledge that Carlton was handling all of this better than he was gnawed at Danny.

"Aren't you pissed?" Danny demanded, baffled by Carlton's unruffled demeanor. "We're the best they have and instead of running a mission in enemy territory like we trained for, we're playing tour guide to a bunch of civilians on a nature walk."

Carlton spoke calmly. "Captain Chandler's on a suicide mission. He knows it. Slattery knows it. The men that signed up, they all know it. That's the reason everyone on the team except the Captain is single. Less collateral damage. You have a wife, Green, a kid. You need to think about them."

 _Amber, her eyes filled with tears, begging to know why Eddie didn't take the offered vaccinate. "Why would Eddie do that? Leave us behind?" She whispered. "We have a child too. What about Tyler?"_

Danny began pacing, pushing the image away. It wasn't the same. _It_ _wasn't._ "I can't just sit here and do _nothing_. We're the best they have and we've been thrown aside in favor of the third-string."

Carlton didn't answer, the silence stretching for so long that Danny wondered if he was going to respond. "If I thought that me being out there would be the difference between the Immunes finding us or not, I'd be out there in a second. But I know that this time it doesn't matter how good we are. The whole point is to draw notice, to attract attention and, if need be, to get caught. And I don't want that to be me because, when it comes down to it, I want to see my child grow up."

Danny felt like he had been punched in the gut. "And you think I don't?" He snarled.

The response was instinctive, a defensive response, but Carlton took it seriously. "Do I think you're suicidal? Nah, but you're so far gone that you no longer care if you live or die. That's why you're breaking the rules. Pushing the boundaries. Taking on too much, refusing to delegate even when people offer."

 _Danny turning off his mic when outside the camp._ _Insisting that he alone be the one to meet all of the arriving groups. Pushing more and more responsibility onto his own shoulders in order to protect his people._

Carlton waited while Danny opened and closed his mouth, unable to find the right words. "You know that one of these days it's going to catch up with you and I'm going to be the one stuck telling Kara that your annoying ass is dead."

"It all seems so pointless," Danny admitted, his anger disappearing as quickly as it came, his entire body suddenly aching with exhaustion.

Carlton nodded, considering the statement. "But it isn't. Dr. Scott found the cure. We have a place to go. No it's not perfect, but it's safe. It's been a couple rough years but things are finally looking up, Green. You have to focus on that."

"I don't know how," Danny confessed.

"Then you need to figure it out," Carlton replied. Letting the words sink in, he straightened. "But for now, we've got a camp to evacuate. And I guarantee by now that both of our wives are ready to kill us so we should probably go before this entire conversation becomes truly pointless."


	13. Potted Plants

_Ch. 13 - Potted Plants_

x

Danny leaned against the doorjamb to the small office space. Not that there was any reason why this chamber was an office versus a bedroom or a classroom or a storage room. All of the underground spaces looked the same - no windows, shiny metal walls, plenty of dust. No, the way Danny knew that this was an office was the large folding table serving as a desk on one side of the room and the futon serving as a couch on the other. Well, and there was the huge potted plant that took up about a quarter of the room.

At the sight of the fake palm, Danny paused. _How_ _in the world did Kelly Tophet find a fake plant and why in God's name would she trek it across the forest?_

"Commander Green. What can I do for you?"

Focused on the bizarreness of the fake shrubbery, Danny hadn't noticed the woman straightening from the box that she was unpacking. Paper, it looked like, and colored pencils. For the children presumably. Frankie was too young to join the group therapy sessions held at the school but many of the older children attended regularly, a fact that Danny found baffling. Who would voluntarily spend time talking about the shitstorm they were living through? Kara was a proponent of the program, espousing the benefits of play therapy, which allowed the kids freedom to express themselves in a non-judgmental manner to anyone who would listen. When Kara got going on her pet project, Danny generally tuned her out. He figured that Doctor Tophet knew what she was doing. Besides, given how many of the kids had watched everyone around them get sick and die, it was good for the teenagers to have an outlet.

 _The last thing that they needed was another suicide._

Danny hesitated, half wanting to give some lame excuse and disappear, but so far Captain Slattery seemed to be sticking with his decision to take Danny off active duty. At zero eight hundred that morning, once the last of the civilians arrived at the bunker and Captain Chandler confirmed that he and his team were high-tailing it north, Slattery officially put Danny on leave.

Danny stepped further into the chamber. "Captain Slattery asked that I come by and see you, Doctor Tophet."

What might have been surprise fluttered in the woman's eyes. "Of course, please come in and shut the door."

"Now?" Danny had assumed that she would give him an appointment, tell him to come back then.

Doctor Tophet smiled. "I have time. Unless you have somewhere else to be."

 _An out._ Danny knew what it was. But what else could he do? He was barred from command. Kara was busy with the logistical nightmare of assigning hundreds of families to chambers, a task complicated by the fact that not all of the rooms were empty, instead filled with cans of fifty-year old peas and other items deemed essential by 1950s bomb scare standards (such as a perfectly preserved 1958 telephone book). Frankie was busy at preschool and even if he pulled her out of class, there was little to do except return to their assigned space and stare at the walls. Decision made, Danny stepped into the chamber, closing the door behind him. Walking past, Kelly opened the door and hung a red scarf on the handle, just like the guys used to do back in college, warning their roommates to stay away. Danny snorted.

Doctor Tophet's lips twitched. "I know. It certainly makes one think that there is something rather naughty going on here, doesn't it? But sometimes the simplest system works the best."

Now that he was fully inside the chamber, Danny didn't know what to do with himself. Already feeling claustrophobic, the idea of sitting on the futon was unbearable. Instead he looked to the boxes. "Can I help you with those?"

Half expecting the therapist to protest and insist that he _tell her how he was feeling_ , Danny was relieved when she nodded. "Sure. Just open the boxes and pile everything on the table. I have to figure out what stays here and what goes to the school."

 _Ah, a safe topic_. "Kara mentioned that you do weekly sessions with the elementary school kids, Doctor Tophet."

"Kelly, please, Commander, two Doctor Tophets is far too confusing."

In almost four years, the other Doctor Tophet never once suggested that Danny call him Quincy. "Only if you return the favor, ma'am."

"Touché." Kelly nodded, returning to her task of sorting books. "Anyway, as to your question, Danny, art is a very useful medium to allow children to express themselves. They may not have the words to explain what they are thinking or feeling, but you can tell a lot from what they draw."

"Like what?"

"Well, for example, if a child draws her family and then scribbles on top of the picture with a black crayon, what do you think that means?"

"They're dead." Danny tried to imagine Frankie's pictures, the colorful yellow and green and blue blobs suddenly dulled out by black. The thought was sobering.

"Or missing or depressed," Kelly expanded. "Sometimes a child will color a surviving parent black, expressing anger or fear. After a significant loss, kids tend to distance themselves from those who remain, afraid of more suffering."

"It must be hard." At Kelly's quizzical look, Danny elaborated. "Seeing kids in such pain."

"Actually, I often find working with children to be easier. They are more vulnerable, certainly," Kelly explained, "but also more resilient in many ways."

She must have sensed Danny skepticism because a fleeting smile crossed her face. "I heard that you had a friend from before in the most recent group to arrive?"

 _A friend from before_. Even their language was different, the unspoken rules about not referring to the event that destroyed so many lives. Danny picked up another box, this time filled with random pieces of cloth. It took a minute for him to realize their purpose. _Tissues_.

"Yes, guy named Eddie. Good friend from high school. He came with his wife and child." Danny wondered where Kelly got her information. Probably from Slattery.

 _Or maybe Eddie was one of the people talking to Kelly._

"How is Eddie doing?" Kelly asked, not looking up from her position on the floor, as though this was merely small talk.

Guilt tugged at Danny. He knew that Eddie made it to the bunker, but only because the guy's name was transferred from one list to another and not because Danny actually checked. Danny reminded himself that the last week had been chaotic. Each night there were new groups to lead through the woods and once at the bunker there were dozens of practical issues to address. While Kara was in charge of arranging housing, they were also scrambling to figure out how to feed everyone and get the facilities up and running, never mind bringing security designed during WWII up to snuff. Thank goodness for O'Connor. Without the man and his engineering genius, Danny was certain that they would have turned right around and moved back to the camp. After upgrading the electrical enough to get Dr. Scott's lab running, turning out doses of the newly discovered cure as quickly as they could given their limited supply of ethanol, O'Connor managed to figure out the old plumbing system, meaning that they now had unlimited water and sewer. Of course, that immediately led to a new problem, what to do with the shower lines that regularly snaked out the bathroom door and down the corridor.

Not that Danny blamed any of them. That first thirty minute shower was better than a shot of the top-shelf scotch that Tex found hidden in the back of one of the storage rooms and promptly opened.

"How old is his child?" Kelly asked, her gaze on him, drawing Danny back to the present.

"Almost five. A little older than Frankie." Danny remembered receiving the birth announcement just before he left for the Arctic. He vaguely recalled sending Eddie a cigar, amused by the fact that one of his friends was taking the plunge into fatherhood.

Kelly stood, walking to the other side of the desk, her gaze unwavering. "Who do you think would have a harder time, Danny, if Eddie hadn't survived. His wife or his son? How about in five years? In ten? Who do you think would be in a better place?"

Danny scowled, hands clenching, but Kelly didn't look away. This wasn't a trick question. They both knew the answer. The children who arrived at their camp were damaged, months and even years of running and hiding and watching those around them die taking their toll, turning the kids into shadows of their former selves. But time was kind to kids, their memories short and their ability to adapt vast. Within six months of their arrival, most were unrecognizable, transformed into vibrant, laughing children. Sure they still had moments, the nightmares, the terror over an unexpected noise, the random bedwetting and separation anxiety, but the children adjusted.

Adults, on the other hand, sometimes couldn't. Those with surviving family did better, but even that wasn't a sure thing. The change from the world they grew up in, the loss not only of loved ones but of homes and jobs and a life of leisure, was too much for some. And although it was rarely discussed, it wasn't entirely unheard of for someone to retreat to their chamber one night and never reappear, the pain and guilt too much to live with.

 _Making the same choice as Frankie._

The answer to Kelly's question was obvious. Tyler would adapt. In five years he would have only the faintest memories of Eddie, made up more of stories told to him than any true recollections. It was Amber who would suffer the most, mourning her husband every time she looked at her son's face, a son who barely knew his father. Danny knew the answer, but he couldn't bring himself to say the words.

"What is it that you fear, Danny?" Kelly asked, still standing across the desk watching him. "The idea of leaving your daughter alone? Or the realization that she could live without you?"

Danny opened and closed his mouth, but no words emerged.

A soft chime blew, breaking the silence. Kelly moved around her desk to turn off the alarm that Danny never saw her set. "I do have a meeting to head to, unfortunately," she explained, gathering up some of the items that he had just unpacked - pencils, glue, glitter - and placed them in her bag. "But I have some time tomorrow morning around nine, Danny, if you would like to help me finish unpacking."

Murmuring his asset, Danny followed her out the door, watching her walk down the corridor. Wondering if she realized what a bombshell she had dropped.

 _Because the truth was, he didn't know._

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"Danny!"

Despite the cheerful greeting, Eddie looked terrible. The man lay on the hospital bed, head propped up by two pillows rather than his own strength, looking more like a skeleton then the Marine he once was. Still, he wasn't spitting blood anymore and his location in Doc Rios's make-shift sick bay, rather than in a hazmat tent in Doctor Scott's lab, suggested that the good doctor was no longer worried that he would succumb to the Red Flu.

Amber, seated to Eddie's side, nodded in Danny's direction as he awkwardly hovered at the end of the bed. "Hey. Thought I would come say hello. Where's Tyler?"

"School." Amber was the one who answered. "Same class as your daughter, actually. Tyler's a little behind so the teacher wants to keep him in preschool even though he's old enough for kindergarten. Most of the other kids his age already know their ABC and she thought it might be too much for him to try to catch up in addition to...everything."

As Amber trailed off, Eddie reached over to squeeze his wife's hand. "Hey, you did the best you could. There were other priorities."

Danny dragged a chair from the main area to the other side of the bed, giving the two a moment of semi-privacy. Sure he knew how hard it was being on the move with a child, but Frankie was barely two when they arrived at the camp. By the time she was old enough for preschool, the decision focused on safety, rather than how to incorporate school into a life spent on the move. Uncertain what to say in the face of Amber's teary eyes, Danny fell back on meaningless platitudes. "Mrs. Dowler is fantastic. Tyler will love her."

Amber straightened. "That's what Kara said. She told me that Frankie is already writing her name and begs to go to class every day."

Granted Danny hadn't spent more than fifteen minutes outside of work with his wife over the past week, but how had he missed Kara and Amber becoming best friends? Realizing that an answer was expected, Danny nodded. "Frankie loves her. Expect Tyler to come home knowing the silliest songs you have ever heard. Frankie loves this one about a duck that eats grapes."

"Oh, I know that one!" Amber replied, brightening, and only then did Danny remember that she used to teach preschool herself.

"Have you thought about putting some time in at the school?" Danny asked.

Amber wasn't quick enough to hide the panic that crossed her face. "Is that expected? Nobody said anything but of course I'm happy to help anyway..."

"No, no, nothing like that," Danny quickly interrupted. "I just thought Tyler might like having you there. At least for a while. Sometimes the kids do..."

Realizing that he was heading into dangerous territory, Danny trailed off. He turned to Eddie. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I stepped on an IED," Eddie replied bluntly. Amber glared at her husband, not finding the joke funny.

Danny wondered if the tension in the room was because of him or if he had interrupted a disagreement. "Sorry I couldn't around earlier. It's been a busy week."

Eddie shrugged. "The guys keep us updated. Getting this place running was a pretty big undertaking. I heard there were nests in some of the rooms."

"A few." Danny shrugged. Fortunately all of the resident wildlife was small and easily removed. "How did they get you through the woods in the dark?"

"I actually got here under my own steam," Eddie joked. "Took all night but your man Tex stayed with me. Helped me through the rough spots."

Danny hadn't known that Tex was the one to move Eddie. "He's a talker."

"Yeah, makes me think a little of Waldron, actually," Eddie replied. "Sounds like a womanizer too."

The comment drew a grin, one that almost instantly faded as Danny recalled the likelihood that Waldron was long dead. "For sure. You know what happened to Waldron? He was still in Boston, right? When everything went south?"

"Yeah, tried to get him to join us in the cabin. Him, my parents, Amber's parents, pretty much everyone. They all thought I was crazy." Eddie's eyes went to Amber, and Danny wondered just how many people their group lost along the way. "Wish now I pushed harder."

Danny shifted in his chair, hearing the unspoken question. _Did Danny know what happened to his parents? His sister? His brother?_

"I tried calling, once we cleared the Arctic, but I never got through. I wonder, sometimes, whether I should have tried to find them. Tried to bring them here." He paused. "But I couldn't leave."

 _Couldn't or wouldn't? Wasn't that the question that haunted him? The fact that he might have found them, might have saved them?_

But Eddie didn't seem to notice his inner turmoil, accepting Danny's statement as fact. "We get through this, and if you want, we can go back together. It will be like old times."

"Just like old times." Danny smiled, but even as he said the words, he knew that they were hollow.

 _Because nothing would ever be like it was again._


	14. Puppets

_Ch. 14 - Puppets_

x

"Captain Slattery!" Danny jogged down the corridor after the man, ducking to avoid the large table being lugged towards command. At times the twists and turns of the underground bunker reminded him of a ship, an oddly comforting feeling after so long on land.

Slattery turned, folding his arms, his face less than inviting. "Green."

"I heard you were looking for volunteers for a trip outside the gate, sir."

If possible, Slattery's face grew even less welcoming. "You're on leave, Danny. I told you two weeks. It's been what, eight days? Go spend time with your wife and kid."

"Kara's still working on making sure everyone has assigned housing. And shower times. And meal times. And..."

Slattery held up a hand. "I get the point. Fine. What about your daughter?"

"If I have to glue another popsicle stick onto a piece of green fuzz and talk like a frog I might lose my mind," Danny admitted.

That drew a chuckle. "Believe it or not, someday you'll miss those days. Puppets sound good in comparison to boyfriends."

Silence fell between the two men and Danny held his breath, praying that Slattery would relent on his decree that Danny take two _full_ weeks leave. After eight days of helping Kara with logistics, playing with Frankie, having conversations of varying awkwardness with Eddie, sparring with Wolf, and being slaughtered by Carlton repeatedly at chess, Danny couldn't stand the thought of staying still for another moment - as his ninety minute run through the corridors at 0500 that morning attested. After years of constant motion, the need to do something - _anything_ \- was becoming overpowering.

"Doctor Tophet mentioned that you came by to see her," Slattery finally commented, his tone revealing nothing of what else Kelly might have said.

Danny nodded. "Every day this week, sir."

A flicker of surprise crossed Slattery's face and Danny wondered, once again, how much Kelly shared with his commanding officers. Technically Kelly was a civilian, so under no obligation to tell Captains Chandler and Slattery anything at all, but in this new world order, few of the old world rules still applied.

"I'll make you a deal, Green. I'm going to swing by Doctor Tophet's office and see what she thinks. If she says that you're good to go, you're on the team." Michael Slattery was no shrinking violet, and his time as the XO of the Nathan James gave him an impressive ability to pin a man down with only his eyes, a skill that he was currently employing quite effectively. "But if I find out that you are bullshitting me about those sessions, your leave is extended to a month. Kapish?"

Danny nodded, thanking his lucky stars that he had in fact been to see Kelly every day that week. It might have been out of boredom more than any desire to _work through his trauma_ as Kelly would say, and the conversations might have focused more on the loss of television than the loss of civilization - _man he missed football -_ but Slattery didn't need to know that. Hopefully Kelly would vouch for him and Danny would get back to doing what he did best. _Whatever that might be_. "Thank you, sir."

With little else to do - even Eddie's schedule was busier, between doctor's appointments and the physical therapy exercises that Doctor Scott suggested - Danny made his way to the small room that had been transformed into the new off-duty lounge. It had been years since Danny had time to play cards, as his mortifying loss to Diaz two days prior demonstrated quite clearly, but there was usually someone around. Which was a good thing. Because if there was one thing that the last eight days had taught him, it was that being alone sucked.

Being alone meant thinking. Thinking about the past. Thinking about the people he lost. Thinking about the people he killed. Thinking about the people he sent on missions who never returned. Thinking about every decision he made over the last four years and questioning each one.

 _If only he did this instead._

 _If only he didn't do that._

 _If only..._

A thousand ways to save Benz, to save Alisha, to save Debbie, to save Smith.

 _A thousand times he made the wrong choice._

 _If only..._

 _If only..._

 _If only..._

Yanking open the door to the lounge, desperate for a distraction, Danny took one step over the threshold and froze at the sight of Kenneth Tex Nolan. If there was one thing that was worse than listening to his own thoughts, it was listening to that guy babble. Danny wasn't sure exactly what about the man irritated him. There were the obvious reasons, of course, like Tex checking out Kara's ass within a minute of meeting her. But given that most of the guys here had done the same at some point or another, that didn't really explain Danny's particular aversion to Tex.

Unfortunately, before Danny could backtrack, Tex caught sight of him. "Ah, Commander Green. Come to give us more of your hard earned cash?"

Since cash was entirely useless in their current situation, the loss of five hundred bucks meant exactly nothing - except for the massive dent in Danny's pride. But, of course, there was no way he was leaving now. That would look like he was running away.

Danny settled himself across from Carl Nishioka, between Ray and Tex. "Don't you wish. Ready to empty your wallet, old man?"

It took all of thirty seconds for Danny to realize that he hadn't stumbled onto a usual mid-morning card game.

"So Ray," Tex shuffled the cards like a pro, the movement of his hands hypnotizing, "you seem to know a lot about poker. You a gambling man?"

"No...not really, I mean, I don't play often, not really, sir."

Across the table, Carl rolled his eyes at Ray's stumbling answer, and Danny abruptly recalled what Mike Slattery said about puppets not being so bad. That _had_ to be better than watching Tex verbally pulverize his daughter's boyfriend. Picking up his cards, Danny knew he didn't stand a chance. Talk about a shit hand. "Ray plays a fair game. Guy needs to do something to keep himself awake on the overnight shift."

Danny could almost hear the sigh of relief from the kid. Tex, on the other hand, continued his less-than-subtle interrogation without a pause. "How long have you and my Katie been seeing each other?"

The emphasis on _my_ was unmistakable. For the briefest of instants, Danny considered the advantages of _not_ having any inlaws, a thought he immediately dismissed, horrified that it even occurred to him. What was it he said to Kelly just that morning?

 _"I should have gone back. Sent Kara and Frankie on to the rally point and gone back."_

 _"So why didn't you?" Kelly asked, as always not looking at him, too busy cutting leaves from colored paper for a project at the school._

 _"I didn't want to leave them."_

 _"So you made a choice. Sacrifice your mother-in-law to save your wife and child."_

 _"No!" The word burst out, but Kelly didn't seem to notice, the scissors never wavering. "I thought she just fell behind. That she was with another group. That she would catch up."_

 _"And when did you realize that she was gone?"_

 _Danny paused, sorting through memories of that day, all colored by time and regret. "We were at the rally point, a couple hours later. Kara was still holding Frankie and I asked her where Debbie was. She never arrived."_

 _Kara's eyes, the unshed tears. She had known. Even as she told Danny not to worry, Kara had known that Debbie was gone for good._

 _"Did you go look for Debbie?"_

 _Danny scowled at Kelly. She knew perfectly well that once at the rally point, nobody left, not until it was time to move out. There was too much risk otherwise, that an Immune might sneak in. Once you made it through the checkpoints, you didn't leave."You know that's not protocol."_

 _"I know," Kelly replied, her head finally lifting. "What I don't know, Danny, is what you think that you did wrong."_

"Your turn, Commander." Danny was snapped back to the present by Ray's subdued voice.

Danny looked at his hand. _Still shit_. "Raise you ten."

Tex tossed a ten dollar bill into the small pile on the center of the table. "Got my room assignment yesterday. Little bit small but just needs a little bit of paint. And plenty of room for Katie."

Ray began sputtering, attempting to cover the sound with a cough. Everyone knew that Kat and Ray had been living together for at least a year and Danny was pretty sure he saw Kara assign the lovebirds joint quarters.

"Where are you set up, Tex?" Danny asked.

"Block E," Tex replied, confirming Danny's suspicions. Block E was filled with small rooms, assigned almost exclusively to single men.

"You're on Block G, right Diaz?" Block G was filed with young couples, Kara's attempt to keep discord to a minimum by keeping the teenagers - and their noise - away from those who were less than tolerant of the younger set.

"Yes, sir."

"How about you, Green? Figure with your wife in charge you've probably got a pretty nice suite." Tex chuckled, ignoring Danny's narrowed eyes. He and Kara, along with Carlton and Ravit and most of the senior officers, including Nishioka, were on Block H.

"Block H."

"Ah, with the Commodore. He said it's quiet, families for the most part. Not really my cup of tea. Guess that's probably why your wife put me in party central." Tex paused, and Danny made a note not to underestimated the man. Apparently Tex knew damn well that his quarters were designed for one. "Only thing that would make it better is if I was closer to that doctor of yours. Damn. That woman is a looker."

"If you go for the Ice Queen thing," Danny replied, shrugging. Noticing that Ray had quietly folded, Danny wondered when the kid would make a break for the door. "Tell us a little bit about you, Tex."

"I'm an open book." Tex grinned, leaning back in this chair until two legs were off the floor. "What do you want to know?"

"Where were you when the world to hell?" It wasn't a question that Danny normally would ask, as evidenced by the shock on Diaz's face, but Tex deserved a little razzing after his earlier performance.

Besides, it wasn't as it Tex was rattled. "Little bit here, a little bit of there. Started my time off in Cuba."

"Gitmo?" Danny asked, dropping a card casually and wondering how long he could nurse his hand along.

"Yup. Bunch of those bastards tried to take me and my crew out. Managed to fight them off long enough to grab a sailboat, get ourselves out of there. It was a long trip to Florida, I'll tell you that."

Ray stared at the other man, mouth falling open. "You sailed from Cuba?"

Tex snorted. "Don't act so surprised, kid. How do you think your grandparents got here? If they could make it, figured I could do the same."

"So what happened once you hit Florida?" Danny asked, genuinely curious.

"Went looking for Katie and her mom, Claire. Only found Claire. Thank God Katie wasn't there. Those bastards. She never stood a chance."

"That what you were doing the past couple of years, taking care of them?" There was no judgment in Danny's voice. Were the situations reversed, it was what he would have done.

But Tex surprised him. "Nah, Red Flu took care of them for me. But by the time I tracked them done, I had run into the Ramseys and their looney-tune followers. Once I found out that they were taking out military bases for fun, I had to make sure that they wouldn't find this place. I was just about done when I ran into Captain Chandler. And there you have it, Kevin Bacon and the seven degrees of separation."

Even Ray was chuckling when Slattery stuck his head through the door. "Green, just the man I was looking for. Your request is approved. Nolan there volunteered to go as well. And take Taylor with you."

"You sure that Doctor of yours doesn't want to come along as well?" Tex wheedled.

 _Damn_. Of all of the people that Danny _didn't_ want to spend time with...

"No." Slattery was clearly not amused. He tossed a laminated paper across the room. Spreading it across the table, Danny could see several places marked with an X. All in Immune territory. "We've cleaned out everything north of here, but Doctor Scott suggested a few hospitals that might have ethanol. Hit as many as you can."

"How much of this stuff do we need?" Danny asked, refolding the map and putting it in his pocket.

"As much as you can find," Slattery replied. "Takes the bikes. That way you can carry more. Once we have a stockpile, Captain Chandler wants to start setting up distribution sites."

Danny raised an eyebrow. This was the first he had heard of extending the cure beyond the limits of the camp. "Distribution sites?"

"It was Kara's idea actually," Nishioka chimed in. "She thought it might help sway public favor towards us and undermine the Ramseys. They might be claiming to speak for the President, but if we can get people the cure, we might just have ourselves a revolution."

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 _A revolution_.

Danny was still seething two nights later as he, Wolf and Tex closed in on the fifth location on Doctor Scott's map. While they were able to locate ethanol at two of the prior hospitals, it was nowhere near the quantity that they would need to start vaccinating the public.

 _Why hadn't Kara told him what she was planning?_

Of course her answer, the one she gave during their whispered fight the night before he left, the kind designed not to wake up the kid or alert the neighbors, made perfect sense.

 _She was brainstorming. It was just an idea. Nothing was final. And what was he thinking volunteering for a mission in Immune territory when he was supposed to be on leave?_

By the time he left the bunker, they were both angry.

"Sounds like a solid plan to me," Wolf said as he rifled through the pharmacy shelves. As with most of these places, it had been cleaned out of the most useful medications. But in a demented twist of fate, the fact that the Immunes controlled this area meant that there were fewer survivors and therefore fewer people to ransack the place.

Locating a bottle of antibiotics, Danny pocketed the bottle, not bothering to check the type or expiration date. Those pills were worth their weight in gold.

"And exactly how will that work?" he demanded. "We send out a radio broadcast and tell people where to meet us? Might as well call up the Ramseys while we're at it. The second that they find out we have a cure we'll be target number one. _Again_."

"So we take out the Ramsey's communication center," Wolf argued.

"A block of C4 should do it," Tex noted, sliding what looked like a bottle of booze into his bag.

"Yeah, once," Danny retorted. "With the minor complication of letting them know that we're still out here. Remember the target number one problem?"

"Then we go north, vaccinate people along the way, word of mouth style," Wolf suggested, although they all knew that it wasn't a viable option. Nishioka ran the model before they left. Without gathering people into centralized location, vaccinating the population would take years. Years of people continuing to die.

"What we need is a way to block the signal without them knowing," Danny replied, his mind going instantly to Alisha. That was the type of problem she excelled at. Figuring out a way to piggyback signals from the Arctic. Blocking their location from the Russians. Linking into the satellites before they went dark.

Tex's head snapped up. "You have people that can do that?"

"Not anymore." Every death was a blow, but Alisha's still stung, the hole she left still gaping. Danny headed towards the exit from the hospital pharmacy. "Let's check the offices too, just in case."

He was checking a fridge, having learned early on that doctors and scientists didn't have the same gag reflex as the rest of them and were not adverse to storing poisonous chemicals next to their lunch, when the slightest of scrapes alerted him to the fact that he wasn't alone. Signalling Tex, he waited until all three men were in position before moving around the desk. While the presence of rats and other small animals wasn't unusual, there was something distinctly _human_ about this sound.

Something confirmed when the muzzle of his M16 came into contact with a head full of very human, albeit pink, hair. Reaching down, he yanked the woman out by her shoulder, taking in her torn clothing and the gas mask clutched in one hand. Civilian, then. _Hiding from the Immunes? Or just looking to get high?_

"Well holy shit," Tex blurted, moving to stand next to Danny. "If it isn't Valkyrie. The Ramseys' _favorite_ puppeteer."

 _Valkyrie_. Everyone knew that name. The creator of the Ramseys' propaganda machine. The person who turned the Nathan James crew into America's most wanted. The woman who was responsible for the destruction of every last operating CDC lab. Doctor Scott would probably kill the woman with her bare hands if she were here.

Pushing the woman roughly into the desk chair, keeping his gun on her, Danny stepped back. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"What is there to say?" the woman spat, her eyes flashing.

"Are you Valkyerie?" Wolf demanded.

"Valerie Raymond. Otherwise known as Valkyrie. In the flesh." She pulled her worn flannel around herself, a motion that highlighted how big her clothes were on her, as thought she hadn't been eating regularly. "Just shoot me and get it over with. At least this way will be quick."

Danny exchanged glances with Tex and Wolf. "You sure this is her?"

"One hundred percent. Saw her with my own eyes, talking to the Ramseys. What happened? No longer the favorite child, sweetcakes?" Tex taunted.

Valerie tossed her matted hair over a shoulder. "If you must know, I left. Turned out that there were some things going on ... that I didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" Danny demanded harshly.

"Didn't know they were killing people!" Valerie shrieked, arms waving. "I thought we were helping! Gathering the survivors! Giving them food and supplies! I didn't know it was all contaminated!"

"Are you kidding me?" Danny's eyes bulged, staring at the woman in front of him in disbelief. "You created the damn program telling people to come to the safe zones where they were being killed!"

"I didn't know!" Valerie wailed again.

"Do you have any idea how many lives you destroyed? How many people are dead because of you?" Turning, Danny slammed a fist into the wall.

"Should I shoot her?" Wolf asked, deadpanned, and although Danny didn't _think_ Wolf was serious, part of him wanted to say yes. Wanted to shoot her himself.

 _Wanted to see this miserable excuse for a human being pay for all the pain and misery that she caused._

But before Danny could make a decision, Tex made it for all of them. "I suggest a halt on the execution. Miss Raymond here might actually be the solution to our problem."


	15. Codes

_Ch. 15 - Codes_

 _x_

"And this program will ensure that the message doesn't fall into the Ramseys' hands?" Captain Slattery asked, leaning against the wall to the small room they had dubbed the wardroom, which was currently filled to the max with senior military officers and the upper echelon of the civilian government.

 _Nobody wanted to miss this meeting._

Kara nodded, clicking a button to move to the next slide in her presentation, one filled with lines of code. "I have gone over the computer program line by line. It will not open on any phone with the hangman app installed or any phone within wi-fi range of the app. If a phone that previously received the message moves within range of a phone with the app, the message self-deletes. There are a few ways around the safeguards, such as taking a screenshot of the message. But I think it's a very low risk, given what we know about the Immunes and how they operate."

As the liaison to the civilian governing body, Kara typically wore civilian attire, even when reporting to Captain Chandler or Captain Slattery. But not today. Because this was no ordinary meeting, not even within the upside-down world they now inhabited. Today was about the course of the future.

 _Would they begin to distribute the cure? Take the risk of exposing their existence? Save the world?_

 _Or die trying._

Kara's decision to don her uniform reflected a truth that they all understood. Because despite the presence of the civilian government with their their endless questions, ultimately this decision fell to one man. _Captain Chandler._ So, instead of her usual slacks and blouse, Kara wore her coveralls to present the plan to distribute the cure, the one she spent every waking moment of the last few weeks developing. It was a good plan. A solid plan. A plan that the old Danny would have supported without question five years ago.

 _A plan that required them to trust Valerie Raymond._

Because as annoying as the man was, Tex was right. _Of course he was,_ as he spent the last week reminding Danny. Valerie Raymond designed the Ramseys' communication system, developing the ingenious idea of leapfrogging from one phone to another using Bluetooth. Figuring out a way to notify people of the cure without alerting the Immunes was child's play. Because no matter how divorced Valerie Raymond was from reality - and a week spent in her company before Captain Chandler decided that it was safe to bring her to the bunker gave Danny plenty of time to see what a wack-job the woman was - she understood one fundamental fact.

 _People kept their phone._

They clung to them, really. To the pictures. To the normalcy they presented. To the hope that, even after so many years, someone might call. Hell, Danny was no exception, keeping his buried in his go-bag. Checking every so often for messages that never came through.

Watching Kara click to the next slide, Danny was struck by a feeling of deja vu. He could almost imagine that they were back in the Arctic watching Kara present the results of the latest weapons' test, the same low bun, the same focused expression, maybe even the same uniform. With the exception of a few gray hairs, Kara hadn't aged a day, the only noticeable difference in her appearance the name tag that she had painstakingly restitched.

The one that said Green.

"And you trust her?" Captain Slattery pressed.

Kara's hesitation was so slight, the flicker of her eyes in his direction so brief, that Danny doubted anyone else noticed. "I don't believe that she is lying to me about the program, sir."

"I agree," Kelly Tophet interjected. This question was the reason for her presence, after all. "During the week that I have spent with Valerie, I have found her to be very truthful. Sometimes painfully so."

Danny wasn't the only person to snort at the understatement. Valerie Raymond was rude, obnoxious, and annoying. Plus there was the fact that she was a mass-murderer.

Ignoring the interruption, Kelly continued. "I don't believe that Valerie had much life experience before the virus struck. Her tendency towards paranoia and conspiracy theories made her the perfect target for the Ramsey brothers, one which they manipulated quite masterfully. I believe that she did think the Ramseys were looking for the labs in order to offer their support to the scientists working on the cure. When told that they were too late, and that the labs were empty upon arrival, Valerie had no reason to question that information. She was naive and too trusting, but she also had nothing to gain from the destruction of the labs given that she herself is not immune."

That was a puzzle that Danny couldn't begin to understand. How a woman who was _not_ immune managed to get so tangled up with the Ramsey brothers.

"Commander Green." Captain Chandler spoke for the first time. "You've spent time with the woman, what do you think?"

Danny paused, fighting the urge to look at Kara, their argument from the night before echoing in his head.

 _Her proposal is brilliant, Danny. Simple yet ingenious. Just like her idea to use the hangman app was._

 _Too brilliant. None of us understand it. She could be playing us and we would never know._

 _I know you better than than. You don't think she's lying any more than I do._

 _You're right, Kara, I don't think she's lying. But it doesn't matter. Putting ourselves out there is too risky._

 _I'm willing to take that risk._

 _I'm not. Not with your life. Not with Frankie's._

"I think Ms. Raymond has a good sense of self-preservation, and she knows what will happen to her if she betrays us," Danny said finally, guilt overwhelming him as he took in Kara's disappointed posture, the appraising glance that Carlton sent him.

 _Duty versus family, the never-ending battle._

But Captain Chandler seemed to notice nothing amiss. "What about preparation of the doses, Doctor Scott? Is ethanol still the limiting factor?"

"It is, although I believe that I've figured out a solution for that," Doctor Scott moved around the table, switching spots with Kara as she took over the presentation. "Doctor Tophet has been working to reduce the cure to a powder. It would be easier to transport, and could be packaged in pill form or mixed into water. We are working now to stabilize the formula."

"How many doses of a _usable_ cure do we have presently?" Captain Slattery pressed.

Pursuing her lips at the interruption of what was no doubt intended to be an extended presentation on the modified cure, Doctor Scott responded. "Several hundred."

"That's enough to do a few trial runs and fine-tune the distribution plan, sir," Kara added.

Captain Chandler turned to Teylor Cruz. "Any sign of Immunes during your patrols?"

"No, sir," Teylor replied. "We've done extensive surveillance and believe that the Immunes have vacated the area. They appear to be focusing their attention on a a few militia groups that have been giving them problems in the Northeast."

Captain Chandler glanced around the room, his face breaking into a smile. "Well then, people, looks like it's time to start saving the world."

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"I wanted to kill her. I think I would have killed her if Tex wasn't there." Danny buried his head in his hands.

"But you didn't." Kelly's words were calm, and Danny waited for more. But that was it. A simple statement. One that was true, but meaningless.

"Not killing somebody isn't exactly an achievement." He laughed bitterly. "And I kind of wish that I had."

 _Without Valerie's program, there would be no trial run distribution._

 _And then Kara and Frankie wouldn't be in danger._

 _Or maybe there would still have been a trial._

 _One that was even riskier._

The thoughts swirled around and around, just as they had for the last two weeks, no answer in sight.

 _Would Valerie's death have made things better? Or worse?_

"You have every right to be angry at Valerie. You have every right to want to kill her. You even have every right to wish that she was dead. What she did led to countless deaths. And if she were here with us right now," Kelly added, "I would tell Valerie that she is very lucky to have a useful skill. Because you are far from the only person in this bunker who feels the way that you do. And not all of them have your restraint."

The anger in Kelly's voice caught Danny's attention and he looked up. "Do you feel that way?"

One thing that Danny liked about Kelly was that she never shirked his questions.

"Not Valerie. When Ruskov was holding me captive, I imagined killing him a hundred different ways. A thousand. When I thought about what he done to me, what he did to my daughter... If I had run into him that night when we were rescued," Kelly paused but her voice never wavered, "I would have slit his throat."

Danny spoke without thinking. "But that was different."

"Why?" Kelly asked, holding his gaze. "Why was that different Danny? Because he raped me? I've heard that answer before. But he didn't kill me, or Ava. He did kill Cossetti. He killed your friend, your teammate, your brother-in-arms. What makes what he did to me any worse than what he did to you?"

Silence fell as Kelly's words sunk in. Danny opened his mouth, then closed it. What could he say? That Kelly's situation was different because she was a victim? Because she was a woman? He had lived with Kara long enough to know that there was no answer to Kelly's last question. But there was an answer to her first. "Valerie's a civilian. There's a different standard. A higher standard. I kill when the mission demands it. No other reason. If one of my guys lost it the way I did at that hospital, I would bench him. Permanently. I've done it before."

 _Both before and after the Red Flu hit. Men who had snapped, who could no longer distinguish between friends and foe. Men who only saw the enemy._

But Kelly was unwilling to let him dwell on his own thoughts. "If you ran into Ned Ramsey in that hospital, what would you have done?"

"Killed him." There was no hesitation in Danny's voice.

"Would you have cared whether he was armed?"

"No."

"And if he wasn't alone, would you have killed those with him?"

"Yes."

"And would we be having this same conversation if that is what happened?" She pressed.

 _Hell, no. If he ever got the opportunity, he would break that sick bastard's neck._

Danny paused before admitting, "Probably not."

Kelly sighed. "You aren't a robot, Danny. Kill one time, not another, always get it right. And in this case, there _was_ no right. Valerie might not have worn a uniform, she might be a civilian, but she was working with the Ramseys. She made a choice to join a side - the _wrong_ side. There are going to be times when you get it wrong, and you'll have to live with that. But in this case, killing Valerie Raymond wouldn't have been wrong, any more than killing Ned Ramsey would be."

"But the computer program..." Danny's protest was immediate.

"Is the only reason we are having this conversation." Kelly's eyes were sad as she shook her head. "Like I said before, Valerie is lucky that she's useful."

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"Kara! Wait!"

Dashing after his wife, Danny cursed the fact that they were in the middle of the corridor. But given that finding "alone" time was nearly impossible these days, he would take what he could get. Catching up with her, he ignored the carefully neutral face she presented, the one that told him without words that she was still upset about this morning. He forced a smile. "Dinner? Ravit said she'll keep Frankie."

Seconds passed and a cold ball formed in Danny's stomach as he wondered what excuse she would use to turn him down. _Work? Headache? Washing her hair?_

But Kara surprised him. "That would be nice."

An uncomfortable silence settled as they walked through the hall toward the cafeteria, Danny trying to remember the last time they did this, ate together, just the two of them. No Frankie. No Carlton. No Ravit or Wolf or Kat. But try as he might, Danny couldn't. Following Kara to the empty end of one of the tables, watching as she lifted her mystery meat burger - beef was long a thing of the past, most of their meat now deer - Danny's stomach twisted. _Was it possible to survive the Red Flu, only for_ _their marriage to buckle under the weight of the mundane?_

"I'm sorry," he blurted. Kara's head came up, staring at him evenly, until he clarified. "For not supporting you this morning. About Valerie."

Kara's eyes widened and she set her burger down carefully. "I'm not upset about that."

"You aren't?" Danny wondered if he sounded as baffled as he felt.

"Of course not. Trusting her _is_ risky. I think it's a risk worth taking. You don't. I would never ask you to change your opinion on a mission for me." Kara shrugged. "If I wanted a yes man, I would have married Nishioka."

A chuckle escaped Danny. As Kara's direct subordinate for years, Carl had developed a reputation for agreeing with just about everything Kara proposed. The fact that she was right most of the time, and that her plans usually succeeded, hadn't lessened the amusement one bit. "But you're upset about something."

"You volunteered for the distribution team." Kara picked up her burger, but didn't take a bite. "That ethanol run went from two days to ten and now you've been back barely a week and you're already volunteering to go out again. Just like with the vaccine trials. You insisted on doing every one yourself. Why can't someone else..."

She stopped, and Danny thought he saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes. "There is nobody else, Kara. Not unless we want to send civilians."

Kara nodded slowly. He wasn't telling her anything that she didn't know. The team selected for the trial run, comprised of Slattery, Danny, Tex, Wolf, and several enlisted men, was already skinny but there were few other options. With Ravit due any day, both she and Carlton were off the list, and Cruz's team was fresh from a three week trek north. Danny reached out to touch her arm. "I won't be gone long. Two days, max."

She looked up, and this time he couldn't mistake the tears. "That doesn't mean something won't go wrong."

 _Which is why he needed to be there, because if it all went south, he would personally make sure that nothing led the Immunes back to this bunker._

Not that he was going to tell his wife that. "Kara, it's a good plan. It's _your_ plan. Trust that it will all go the way it should."

The skeptical look on Kara's face told him that he had not been entirely convincing. "You'll be careful?"

"I promise."


	16. Ice Cream

_Ch. 16 - Ice Cream_

 _x_

 _x_

They arrived before sunrise, even though their message told people noon, leaving them plenty of time to scope out the area. But for the moment at least, the overgrown football field on the south end of a rinky-dink town called Gatlinburg didn't contain anything more dangerous than the occasional bunny. While Slattery's team was monitoring the treeline and Wolf's team was watching the incoming road, Danny was stuck in a small concession stand filled with ripped and faded posters extolling the virtues of the Gatlinburg Highlanders and their mascot, a black bulldog named Smokey, along with Tex Nolan, Rob Abbott, and Valerie Raymond.

Bringing Valerie was Danny's idea, of course, thinking that she was less likely to cross them if she was going to be in the line of fire. But after listening to her bitch for the last seven hours, from the moment they left the bunker, a clash with the Immunes didn't sound so bad. First Valerie balked at riding on a motorcycle, calling them deathtraps. Then she was cold, despite commandeering a jacket and two blankets. Then her hair was a mess, her complaints growing even louder when Danny pointed out that she never bothered brushing it anyway. By the time they arrived at the stand, even Tex had reached his limit, fashioning earplugs out of dusty four-year-old napkins.

By the time 0010 rolled around, Danny was roasting. To maintain the illusion that the stand was empty, the team had drilled small holes through the stand's metal shutters rather than rolling them up. With the doors and windows closed, the small space heated quickly. Danny stared longing at the freezers plastered with pictures of dancing ice cream sandwiches. _Who knew that it could be so blasted hot in Tennessee in November?_

"I _told_ you this was a waste of time," Valerie whined, as though she hadn't already made the point a dozen times prior. " _Nobody_ is coming."

"If nobody is coming, then your message didn't work, did it?" Danny retorted. "So why are we keeping you around again?"

Valerie huffed. "Obviously I meant that the _Ramseys_ aren't coming. People will be here. We've still got _hours_."

"You better hope so." Danny flipped a coin, watching as it sparkled in the dim light. "And be quiet. Next time you open your mouth, I might just shoot you."

"Anything would be better than sitting here sweating to death," Valerie muttered, clearly not cowed by the threat. Probably because he'd already used it more than once, Danny conceded. Or because he probably wouldn't do it.

 _Probably_.

"You two need a room," Tex teased, the corners of his mouth twitching.

Valerie recoiled. "Gross."

Danny rolled his eyes. After their joint supply run, Danny conceded that Tex had good instincts and was an excellent shot. But his sense of humor left a lot to be desired. "You know I can transfer you to latrine duty, right?"

Tex seemed about as worried as Valerie did to the earlier threat. "Touche."

"I have movement down by the school," Rob spoke, abruptly ending any levity.

Standing, Danny peeked through the shutters. And sure enough, there did appear to be a car pulling up, but not towards the field. Instead it was moving to the back of the school building, partially hidden by the trees. Instantly a dozen possibilities ran through Danny's head.

 _A red herring sent by the Immunes to keep them occupied while they came through the woods behind them? Someone here for the cure who misjudged the distance? A family on the road stopping at what looked like a safe spot, just at the right place at the right time?_

Raising his radio, Danny hailed Slattery. "Vulture, you see that?"

The answer was immediate. "Yep. Tiger?"

"We've got it," Wolf replied.

"Keep your eyes on the road," Slattery directed. "We've got the woods. Might not be a one-off."

"Yes, sir."

Eyes fixed on the old woodchuck station wagon, the kind that was popular back when he was a kid, Danny watched as two men emerged.

"Not military," Rob commented after a moment. Danny agreed. The two were armed, of course, these days everyone was. And they were being careful, sticking to the tree line and the shadows. But the way they moved said hunter, not soldier.

"SITREP?" Slattery asked over the radio, his position in the woods not allowing a clear view of the approaching duo.

"Looks like civilians, sir," Danny replied, watching as one of the men doubled over, hacking into a handkerchief. "One of them might be sick."

Tex was the first to realize the two strangers' designation. "Shit. They're coming here."

"Might just be looking for somewhere to wait," Rob suggested.

"Or they're looking for a spot to pick people off as they arrive," Danny replied, picking up the radio again. This spot at the top of the bleachers did have an excellent view of both the field and the road. "Looks like we're about to get company here."

Slattery's response was quick and decisive. "Everyone stay frosty."

"Raymond, get behind the counter," Danny ordered. "And this time _actually_ shut up. Tex, you stay with her. Rob, cover me."

With everyone in position, Danny placed himself directly in front of the door, arms crossed, gun on his back. No reason to terrorize the men if they were actually civilians. As the two drew closer, Danny began to catch snip-its of conversation.

"Looks like we're first in line, Jack." The voice was full of forced optimism, the kind that people used when they knew that they were screwed.

"Assuming anyone is even coming," replied a second voice, one that sounded older and far weaker. _Most likely the man who was coughing._

"I have a good feeling about this one."

"This isn't the first time you had a good feeling, and the last people..." The rest of the sentence was drowned out by a bout of coughing. _Definitely not faked_.

"Just hold on a little while, Jack. We'll find something to trade for the medicine. Maybe the car. Not like we'll need it if we're dead."

Danny shook his head. Everyone on the team had heard stories of the snake-oil salespeople who shook people down for their last few possessions in exchange for a fake cure. Danny might have told a lie or two, but at least he never stole anything.

"Doubt they're even come near us. Not unless it's to put a bullet in our heads."

"Always the negative..." the man was still talking as he pushed the door open, looking backwards at his friend as he stepped inside. At the sight of Danny his hands shot up, and he stepped quickly in front of the second man, no attempt to raise his weapon. "Hey man, we don't want any trouble. We were just looking for a place to stay warm. We can take off. Forget we ever saw you."

Danny considered the man. Probably mid-thirties. He looked older, but the Red Flu did that to people. Aged them prematurely. The second man was more grizzled, well into his sixties, Danny estimated. And the first guy referred to him by his first name, so not father and son but definitely close friends.

 _If this was an Immune trick, it was damn well done._

"You're sick?"

"No, no, we're fine." There was a flash of panic in the man's eyes, and he stepped back towards the door. "Saw this place and thought we'd look for food. Just trying to survive. That's all."

"So you aren't here for this?" Danny asked, picking up the bright yellow container. Despite the color, Doctor Scott insisted the vaccines be transported in CDC coolers, worried that anything else wouldn't keep the doses at the proper temperature. After a dozen failed attempts to paint them a less noticeable color, Slattery finally wrapped them in dark blankets before strapping them to the bikes.

The man stopped his retreat, although he continued to regard them cautiously. His eyes remained fixed on the case. _Desperation warring with fear._ "How much do you want for it?"

"Nothing. It's free."

If anything, that seemed to make the man more suspicious. "You military?"

"Navy."

"With the government?"

Valerie, unable to follow even the simplest of directions, snorted. "What government? Have you seen one lately?"

Having made her presence known and apparently unilaterally deciding that the situation was harmless, Valerie resumed her position balancing on the counter. Resisting the desire to literally tape her mouth closed, Danny focused his attention on the man before her. "I made an oath to this country. I'm just doing my duty."

The man nodded, the movement appearing to be directed more at himself than Danny. But before he could speak, Jack moved forward. "I'll go first. Try it out."

The other man immediately protest. "No, let me..."

"Nah. You got other things to worry about," Jack replied, the unspoken communication more meaningful than what was said. Danny wondered who was waiting in that car for these men. _Wife? Child? Both?_ Because nobody hid a car that carefully unless they had something precious to protect.

 _Even if, without the cure, they were all dead anyway._

"Roll up your sleeve." Retrieving a dose from the cooler, Danny swabbed Jack's arm, injecting the needle in exactly the way Doctor Scott directed. Once complete, he recapped the syringe, placing it back in the container. Pre-virus Danny would have been horrified by the thought of reusing a needle. Post-virus Danny knew that every one discarded meant more supply runs, searching through hospitals and medical centers for their unused stash and hoping that the junkies didn't get there first. He gestured for the man to sit. "You want some water?"

"It's sealed, in case you're worried," Valerie added, swinging her legs as she skimmed a four-year-old hunting magazine.

Taking the water bottle, Jack stared at them intently. "None of you care that I'm sick."

The first man - Danny really needed to ask him his name - gasped. "Jack!"

"That's because we're immune," Danny explained, almost amused. "That shot there? We already got it."

"You sure this thing works then?" Jack asked.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't," Rob replied. When the two men glanced at him curiously, he continued. "My whole family, we were exposed. Couple guys with us died. That shot you just got, it saved my life. Saved my whole family. Brought my buddy back from the brink of death. Never seen anything like it."

It was the reverence in Rob's voice that struck Danny. The amazement. _Would he still feel that way if he knew about the failed trials? Would he be saying the same thing if Eddie had died? If the cure came too late for his wife, his children?_

Moving towards the shutters, Danny let Rob field their questions. For the first time in four years, he stood back and let someone else extol on Doctor Scott's miracle vaccine.

 _And this time, the words weren't a lie._

Sixteen minutes passed before Jack turned to his friend, who by now was identified as Bobby. "Besides a sore arm, I can't say I feel much of anything."

"Oh my god! Haven't you people gotten a vaccine before?" Valerie snapped, rolling her eyes.

"Have you?" Tex asked. "Kind of took you for an anti-vax nutjob."

Valerie tossed her hair. "Vaccine injury is real, I will have you know. But regardless, everybody knows that they don't work _immediately_."

Bobby chuckled, Valerie's drama somehow convincing him that they were the real deal. "Guess it's my turn."

Moving to the case, Danny retrieved a second syringe. Bobby smiled nervously as he approached, obviously not entirely comfortable with Danny despite his rapport with Rob and Tex. "Rob said you were on a destroyer when everything went south? Jack's son was Navy. We were best friends growing up, that's how I know Jack. Anyway, Drew was in Hawaii when this thing broke. Jack's also got a daughter who was stationed in Alaska. You hear anything from the other bases?"

Danny scowled at Rob. While the information about the Nathan James location wasn't a secret, exactly, the less revealed about Doctor Scott and her mission the better. Still, despite his annoyance, his eyes were drawn to Jack, noting the sorrow etched on his face at the mention of his children.

 _This could be Smith's father. Berchem's mother. The parent any of the dozen of men who Danny lost over the years._

Danny dropped his gaze, already knowing what he would see in Jack's eyes. Resignation. Sadness.

 _And a spark of hope_.

Because even when people knew the score, they could never stop dreaming of a miracle.

 _The way Danny would if he lost Frankie._

Pushing the thought of Frankie away, Danny swabbed Bobby's arm. From the news that trickled in, Hawaii had been one of the first hot spots, but Alaska closed the borders early. They were remote. They might be okay - assuming Russia didn't nuke them. "We were in the Arctic. By the time we got back, things were pretty disorganized. But there were survivors."

 _An answer that wasn't an answer. A lie by omission._

 _Now instead of lying to people about the cure, he was lying to them about their kids._

 _How was that different from someone peddling false cures?_

Bobby's eyes lingered on him as Danny replaced the needle in the cooler. He had been around the block enough to know that the man was deciding whether he could pocket a couple without anyone noticing. Having apparently decided that the answer was no, Bobby spoke hesitantly. "Those doses...think we could borrow a couple?"

"So you can vaccinate the people in that station-wagon?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow. "Probably better to bring them here. Besides, _b_ _orrow_ suggests that you plan to return something, and I don't think you have any intention of coming back."

To Bobby's credit he flushed, but before the man completely crumbled, Tex stepped in. "Don't mind the Commander. He might sound like a hard ass but he's got a family of his own. And believe you me, he made sure they were at the top of the list when it came time to give out those shots."

Danny glared at Tex. Was he seriously suggesting that Danny pulled strings to make sure that Kara and Frankie were vaccinated first? Except, wasn't that exactly what happened? Kara might have been on the list anyway, due to her position as civilian liaison. But Frankie was vaccinated by virtue of being in Group One, a group that she was included in only because he was her father.

 _The very definition of nepotism._

"Hey, don't give me that look," Tex threw up his hands. "I made sure my little girl was on the list too."

The difference being, of course, that Kat was vaccinated because she worked with Doctor Scott. Not simply because she was traveling with her. With a final scowl, Danny turned to Jack and Bobby. "How about we compromise? We'll go with you to the car. Maybe we can help your kids."

Bobby jumped. "How did you know?"

Danny wondered if people were always this clueless. "The walkie-talkie in your pocket kind of gave it away."

"Oh." Bobby blinked. "The girls, they're sick. Really sick."

And at that, Danny's heart sank. He had been hoping that Jack was the only one with symptoms. Sure Eddie made it, but that was with IVs and medical attention 24-7. _How would Bobby feel if the cure that saved his life was unable to save his children? Would he ever forgive Danny for sentencing him to a life without them?_ "Let's go see. How are you doing on food? Water?"

"Low," Bobby admitted. Tex moved to gather some of the supplies that the team brought to pass out, suspecting that the people here would have little, while Danny collected a few doses and the med kit. "We saw a sign for a safe zone over in Oak Ridge. But when they got there, they wouldn't let us in."

"Safe zone?" Danny queried. There was no official safe zone within fifty miles of this field. It was actually one of the reasons that Captain Chandler chose this place, the remote nature of the school. He tipped his head to Tex, receiving an understanding nod in return. They needed to know more about that safe zone - and Tex was the perfect person to find that out.

After a quick call to Slattery to explain the plan, Danny turned to Rob. "You're in charge. Try not to let Raymond get in any more trouble."

Valerie flipped Danny off. "Love you too, sweetheart."

Laughing as the exited the small stand, Jack glanced at Tex. "Why is she with you anyway? She doesn't seem like military."

"She's not," Danny replied curtly. "She designed the phone message. She's here to make sure it worked."

Another lie, but this one he didn't bother him in the least. _Crazy nutjob was lucky to be alive_.

"You two from around here?" Tex asked, and if he didn't know otherwise, Danny never would have guessed that the question was nothing more than casual conversation.

"From Nashville," Bobby replied, no suspicious in his voice. "We were in a safe zone there for the first year or so. After the food supplies stopped, it was every man for himself and we've wandered a little since then. We went West, thinking it might be safer there, but ran out of gas and hunkered down in an abandoned cabin. After a while the gangs started getting bad so we came back east. Ended up right back where we started."

"Why Gatlinburg?"

"I used to come over here hunting," Jack explained. "Figured we could crash in one of the cabins."

"When we saw the sign about the safe zone over at Oak Ridge, it seemed like a god send," Bobby elaborated. "But they weren't letting new people in. So we found a cabin, settled in for the winter."

"They say why they closed the doors? Running out of supplies?"

 _Oh Tex was good. Very, very good._

"I don't think so. They were passing out blankets and juice boxes. I didn't even know there were still juice boxes around. The girls were so excited." The smile on Bobby's face quickly faded. "Better for them that they turned us away. Three days later the girls started getting sick."

Tex glanced at Danny, both instantly understanding the significance. _The boxes. The damn juice boxes._ The Immunes were using the safe zone as a front to pass out infected supplies.

 _To children_.

 _Sick bastards._

"Once you're all feeling better, think you'll stick around these parts?" Tex continued.

"Haven't thought that far." Bobby replied quickly, glancing at Jack.

The older man sighed. "Someone should warn you boys. There's a rough gang operating out of these woods, led by a man named Chandler, killing anyone who crosses them. They're claiming to be military. Huge groups of people have disappeared without a trace."

 _Damn_.

Danny knew that the Immunes were spreading stories about them, making the Navy out to be the bad guys in order to keep them isolated and pinned down. But he never considered how their operations would appear to those outside the camp.

 _What it might look like to have groups of people walk into a forest, and never walk out._

"Huh. We'll, ugh, watch out for that." Danny hoped he didn't sound too dismissive.

Apparently he failed miserably. Jack narrowed his eyes. "Arrogance has been the downfall of more than one young man, son."

"What makes you think this gang is real?" Tex jumped in, far more credibly than Danny.

"Our neighbor up at the cabins," Bobby explained. "Ayita got separated from her family, spent weeks tracking them through the forest. The trail just disappeared. She's been on her own since."

"Ayita, that's an unusual name," Danny commented, searching his memory for why it sounded so familiar. And then it struck him. _T_ _he memorial_. Russell Safley, who arrived over a year ago with three children after their safe zone was infected and who now taught at the high school, _talking about a wife named Ayita_.

"Cherokee," Jack explained. "Damn strong woman too. Survived here by herself for more than a year. Won't leave, she says, not without her family."

"We would be interested in meeting this woman, hearing her story for ourselves," Danny said, aiming for casual and hoping that it didn't come off as dismissive this time.

Jack made a face. "Doubt she'll be coming. She figured this was just another scam."

They were almost to the car now, and Danny took a fortifying breath, knowing that it was going to be bad. Given that Jack was currently hacking up blood and the kids got sick before him, their condition wasn't going to be pretty. To think that the Ramseys were doing this on purpose...infecting children. He should have brought Valerie with them. Make her see firsthand the consequences of her _poor judgment_.

"Here we are." Bobby lifted the hatch to the station wagon.

 _Bad didn't even begin to describe it_.

The girls were six, maybe seven. Twins by the look of it, lying next to each other, their hands intertwined. Blood dripped from one girl's nose, her face ashen against the blue blanket that she was wrapped in, shivering despite the warmth of the car. The other cuddled a small pink bunny, her hands limp and breathing ragged.

"Hey darlings," Bobby whispered, bending down to kiss one forehead and then the other. "Daddy got you help. I just need you to hold on a little longer, okay? You're going to feel better soon. I promise."

Pulling out the syringes, Danny fought the urge to punch a tree as he carefully injected one thin arm and then the other, puncturing skin so fragile that the bruises began forming instantly. Even as he recapped the needles, he knew that receiving the cure wasn't enough. These girls were sick. _Really sick_. They needed fluids and a hospital and a whole hell-of-a-lot-of-other-stuff that didn't come in a med kit.

 _This wasn't supposed to happen._

 _He wasn't supposed to go through this again_.

 _What was the point of having a cure if children were still going to die?_

Tex was staring at him, and Danny could have sworn that the man read his mind. "Ward was sicker."

Danny glanced against at Bobby, who was now pouring water into one of the girl's mouth using the bottle's plastic cap. There were so many reasons why he should turn and walk away. Every resource used here was one less for someone else. Every minute that they stayed here put them at more risk of discovery.

 _And every life saved was one less ghost to haunt him at night._

Danny picked up the radio. "I'm going to need Rios and a couple of stretchers."


	17. Buses

_Ch. 17 - Buses_

 _x_

They stabilized the girls overnight. Maddy and Ella, Danny learned. Twin girls conceived through IVF after many years of infertility. Bobby lost his wife in the early days of the Red Flu, when the girls were barely eighteen months old. That's when he and Jack teamed up, raising the girls together, creating a new family unit.

 _One that looked like it just might survive._

The girls had made it through the first critical twelve hours, despite Rios's original concern at their condition. Not everyone who made it to the football field had been so lucky. As the team anticipated, many of those arriving were sick. After all, it took a certain amount of desperation to place your trust in a text from an unknown number. What none of them had anticipated was how many people would show up without any sign of the virus - their desperation coming not from illness, but years of hiding from an unseen enemy, scrounging for food and medicine, terrified that every time they walked outside would be the last time. As one symptom-free man explained to Danny as he rolled up his sleeve, worst case was that he was right back where he had been the day before, waking up every morning waiting to die.

The team brought three hundred doses, expecting to have dozens left over.

 _They were all gone._

Groups of one or two quickly turned into ten or fifteen once word spread that this wasn't a scam or, at least, if this _was_ a scam that at least it was a free one. Once the team realized how many people were arriving, they established a screening system. Divide the healthy from those who might be infected, priority first to children and then to those showing symptoms. As the number of people lying on stretchers and blankets grew to two dozen, the fatalities began. The first was an elderly woman who collapsed before ever receiving the vaccine, Rios making the agonizing decision not to give her a dose, determining that her condition was hopeless. After that Danny stopped keeping tracking, forcing his eyes not to linger on the row of small, silent mounds.

As their supplies began to dwindle, Tex and Wolf made the run back to the bunker for more doses, more supplies. But, of course, they couldn't take a direct path. There was too much risk of someone - _of the Immunes_ \- following. So the three hour trek back to the bunker became five. Add in the time to locate supplies and the anticipated fight with Doctor Scott about whether she would join the team, and Danny didn't expect to see them until after midnight. He checked his watch in the moonlight. 23:39. They had run out of doses more than two hours ago, and at least forty people sat waiting in small groups around the field. _Hoping against hope that more were coming._

The only good thing about Wolf and Tex leaving was that Danny sent Valerie Raymond back with them, tired of her incessant whining about the bugs.

Every minute that they remained here was risky. Their original plan to stay for two hours and retreat into the woods before there was time for anyone to report their presence was long since shot. Over two hundred people had come and gone. Any one of them could be an Immune spy, could even now be informing the Ramseys of their presence, with who knew what consequences. Danny still didn't know why Slattery agreed to his crazy proposal to turn the field into a field hospital, one hatched on the fly as Danny stared at those two little girls. Or maybe Slattery did.

 _Maybe Mike was just as tired of seeing people die as Danny was. Maybe he was just as angry. And maybe he knew that saving those two girls was enough to give them all a little bit of hope._

"Commander?"

"Yes, ma'am." Danny turned towards Mrs. Baker. A tiny sixty-year-old woman with stern black eyes, the woman had arrived with one of the first groups, her gaze taking in every detail of the somewhat chaotic scene before her and then offering to help. Busy dealing with a scuffle caused by a man who clearly spent the majority of the last four years making and drinking moonshine, Danny took one look at the frail senior and suggested that she help Tex with intake, a job that would allow her to sit on the bleachers. It was, beyond question, the best decision Danny made all day. The widow of a pastor, Mrs. Baker spent thirty years leading a congregation, and she knew how to control a crowd. Within twenty minutes of her arrival, intake was running like clockwork and she had turned to the efficient distribution of supplies.

Mrs. Baker gestured to the man standing next to her. "Mig here, he has medical training."

Danny took in the young man. Mid-twenties at best, shaggy hair down to his shoulders, nothing to indicate special skills. Still, the woman had yet to steer him wrong. "That so?"

"Did two years of medical school, back before," the young man confirmed.

The kid seemed sincere, earnest. Danny hoped to hell that it wasn't an act, a ploy to worm his way into their good graces. "You get your dose?" When Mig nodded, Danny raised a hand, signalling for Rios. "I'm sure Doc would appreciate the help."

"Anything I can do," the man replied.

"Green!"

Leaving Mrs. Baker to introduce Mig to Rios, Danny picked his way over to the treeline where Slattery waited, noticing that Tex and Wolf stood next to him and wondering when they arrived. Stumbling over the rock, Danny cursed. The choice not to use lights was deliberate, not wanting to attract more attention than necessary, but also made moving somewhat tricky. He nodded towards the container that Tex held. "How many extra doses did you bring?"

"Another hundred," Tex replied. "That's all Doctor Scott had ready. She demanded to come. Wanted to see for herself how things were going."

"That is the least surprising thing that I've heard all day." Slattery paused, his gaze travelling across the field. "Although I can kind of understand her point. This is something to see."

As the four men stood gazing out at the sight before them, Danny had to agree. If today proved anything, it showed that distribution was possible. Of course, that caused problems of its own. For every dose of the cure that they distributed, there would be more supply runs, more text messages, and more gatherings, each one riskier than the last. But despite his original resistance to this plan, Danny was glad that Captain Chandler overruled him. Yes, there were 1200 people inside the bunker who were in more danger today than they had been yesterday. But there were also three hundred people outside the bunker who were safer.

 _The next time it might be 600, or 1200, or 2000._

 _Someone's mother or father or sister or brother._

 _Every life meaningful._

Slattery folded his arms. "Another group arrived less than an hour ago. Came all the way from Sandpike, an hour west. Said they heard about us from a friend. Guy who got the vaccine earlier. Word is spreading quickly. We have to leave before we run out again or we risk accidentally infecting people. Spread the word that we move out at 0400."

Danny nodded slowly. Running out of the vaccine with no ability to obtain more was pretty much worse case. Every person who arrived at this field could be exposed simply by breathing, and if they infected someone else, well, that was pretty much game over.

 _That would make them no better than the Immunes._

"We can't leave these people," Danny murmured, gesturing to the rows of the sick. "They won't make it."

"I've been thinking about that," Tex replied, stroking his beard. "Me and Mr. Wolf here, we might have a plan."

"Have you now, Mr. Nolan?" Slattery asked, clearly amused.

"We don't need much to move a couple dozen people. A couple trucks, maybe," Tex replied.

"We saw some on our travels," Wolf added. "Wouldn't be too hard to hotwire."

"Too dangerous," Slattery replied reluctantly. "Too much risk of someone following us back to the bunker. And that's assuming we could get a truck down that trail. Even on the bikes it was pretty rough."

"But that's the best part." Tex rubbed his hands together. "We wouldn't be going to the bunker."

"Do I want to know?" Slattery asked warily.

Tex chuckled. "We'll be heading back to camp."

"You want to lead the Immunes right to our backyard?" Danny demanded, flabbergasted.

"Actually," Slattery said slowly. "It's brilliant. Perfect place to lie low until we know whether we've been followed. If the Immunes do find us, we'll make a run north."

Danny blinked, catching on. "And since we left them plenty of evidence suggesting that we were headed to Chicago before we moved to the bunker..."

"They'll assume that's where we've gone," Slattery finished. "We might actually get them off our case."

The Immunes would never think that they vacated the camp for a bunker only miles away. _It was brilliant_. "I'll go with you."

"Nope," Wolf interjected. "Nolan and I already talked. You get yourself killed and Frankie doesn't have a dad anymore. We can handle it, sir."

Swallowing his protest, Danny nodded. Accepting Wolf's offer. One day he would find a way to repay the man, not just for today, but for every time he watched Danny's back. "Suppose I should get vaccinating then."

Passing Danny a cooler, Tex fell into step next to him. "Just by way of a warning, you may want to pick up some flowers on the way home. Your wife was less than thrilled when we showed back up without you."

Danny winced, remembering their last conversation.

 _Kara, it's a good plan. It's your plan. Trust that it will all go the way it should._

 _You'll be careful?_

 _I promise._

And he had been. Except for the part about throwing the original plan out the window, starting a field hospital, and staying here a day longer than planned.

Danny shot a look at Tex. "Any chance you could swing by the florist for me while you are out scoring a ride?"

Slapping Danny on the back, Tex chuckled. "I learned my lesson about women a long time ago. You are on your own, Connecticut."

Danny chuckled as he took the CDC cooler from Tex, amused despite himself. Reaching Rios, he paused briefly by the man's side. "Captain said to be ready to move at 0400."

Rios frowned. "These people..."

"We're working on that. Just be ready to move. Possibly on the fly."

"Understood." Rios accepted the order without further question. This wasn't the first time either of them stood in the dark, wondering who would still be standing come morning.

 _And it was unlikely to be the last._

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"Commander, I need to speak to you."

Danny was surprised at how quietly Bobby materialized at his side. Maybe he hadn't given the man quite enough credit yesterday. For a civilian, he was rather stealthy. "Give me a minute."

Bobby waited quietly while Danny injected the vaccine into the waiting woman's arm, the last of a new group of arrivals. Despite the early hour, they were still getting a surprisingly steady flow of people, most of them having heard the news from those previously vaccinated and not willing to take the risk of waiting.

 _Intuitively understanding that this might just be their only chance._

Danny checked his watch, startled to realize that it was almost 0330.

 _Where the hell were Tex and Wolf?_

He turned to Bobby. "What can I do for you?"

Bobby drew himself up, the words erupting from his mouth. "I know you're leaving. I saw Doctor Rios packing up. You have to take us with you. The girls, they're getting better. Maddy even opened her eyes! But without the Doctor..."

Danny held up a hand. "We're working on it. Finding transport vehicles. There are a lot of people here, a lot of logistics. Just be patient."

Even as he said the words, he could feel Bobby's skepticism. And he understood. _Platitudes_. Ones that Bobby had probably heard a hundred times - a thousand - before.

 _There's nothing to worry about, just a few cases in Africa._

 _The safe zones are the best place to be._

 _We're working on a cure right now._

 _Give us time, everything_ _is going to be okay._

Lies. Well-meaning or otherwise, they were all still lies.

Bobby stared at Danny. "You have a little girl, right?"

His eyes narrowed, Danny nodded in the affirmative. _Damn Tex._ "Yes."

"You swear on your little girl that you won't leave without us?"

It was a bold request, and Danny wondered if Bobby realized how many times Danny, like those people in Bobby's past, made promises that he knew he could never keep. How many times that, rather than the truth, Danny told people what they wanted to hear. _Keep them calm,_ Danny would order, _tell them what they want to hear_. Treating the sick and dying the same way he would treat an angry mob.

 _Because from his perspective, desperation and anger didn't look a whole lot different._

"We won't be leaving you behind," Danny said, praying that the words he spoke were not lies. "Anybody wants to go, can go."

Just them the rumble of an engine shattered the quiet. Danny turned, gun lifting, only to be taken aback by the sight before him. _A school bus._ They commandeered a damn school bus. Tex waved cheerfully as he drove onto the field, coming to a halt next to Rios.

Popping out the door, Tex leaned against the hood. "Knew learning to drive an RV would come in handy someday."

Danny began moving towards Rios. "It appears that your ride has arrived. I'll help you with the girls."

"Commander!" Bobby said, dashing after him. "Thank you."

Glancing towards the man, Danny ignored the tears glittering in his eyes. _When would they start to understand that he was just the messenger?_

"It's not me you want to thank."

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Five hours later, Danny swung his leg off the motorcycle, his back cracking when he finally had an opportunity to stretch stiff limbs. Despite taking a relatively straightforward path - a necessity given the monstrosity they were escorting - the trip still took twice the time anticipated. _Damn school bus._ Still, Tex made the right choice. In addition to the dozen people who Rios was treating, a surprisingly large number of the civilians present when it was time to go, including Mrs. Baker and Mig, elected to join them. As a result, the bus was jam-packed.

When Danny turned, planning to help Rios get the old infirmary up and running, he once again found himself face-to-face with Bobby. The man looked around before turning his gaze back on Danny.

"Those people. The ones who disappeared in the woods. They didn't disappear at all, did they?"

"Oh they disappeared all right," Tex replied, slapping Bobby's back as he moved past them. "Just turns out that the reason they disappeared was because they didn't want to be found."


	18. Blueberries

_Chapter 18 - Blueberries_

 _x_

"It's a boy."

Danny jerked at the sound of Kara's voice, almost falling out of his chair. Six hours had passed since Carlton came by their room to announce, rather frantically, that Ravit's water had broken. With Kara occupied with her role as midwife, Danny was left to entertain Frankie. He was beginning to wonder whether he should take the child back to their own rooms and attempt to put her to bed when Kara appeared. Tired, sweaty, clothing twisted, and beaming down at the bundle she cradled.

"Look, Daddy! A baby." Frankie's voice was soft, awed. Kara knelt so she could get a better view of the infant wrapped in a blanket, his tiny face scrunched up in a remarkable resemblance to his father. Frankie reached out, touching the baby's small hand.

"Gentle now, Frankie," Kara said softly, maneuvering so the little girl could see the baby more easily. "Isn't he beautiful? His name is Cameron Eli."

 _Cameron_. For Carlton's brother. _Eli._ For Ravit's father.

"Cam-ron," Frankie repeated, butchering the name, but neither of her parents corrected her. After stroking the baby's hand for another minute, Frankie looked up. "Can I see Auntie Rae now?"

"Right now she's resting, sweetheart," Kara explained. "Having a baby is a lot of work. How about you draw her a picture for now and then you can see her in the morning?"

Danny helped Kara to her feet as Frankie scrambled back across the room to pull out her crayons, apparently satisfied with the suggestion.

Kara watched Frankie dash off, a soft smile playing on her lips. "Hard to believe that she will be four soon. She's going to make a wonderful big cousin to Cam."

Danny's breath caught at the wistful note in Kara's voice, imagining what she really wanted to say.

 _Frankie would make a wonderful big sister._

The image arose unbidden. A toddler, a boy with sandy hair like his daddy. Smile plastered on his face as he raced after his big sister, stumbling on unsteady feet until she turned to take his hand. _Helping him. Protecting him. Loving him._ There wasn't a doubt in Danny's mind that being a big sister would come as naturally to Frankie as being a mother came to Kara.

But even as the happy moment played in his head, Danny felt his throat tightening, an icy finger running down his spine.

 _Another child to hide, living life inside a camp or a steel bunker._

 _Another child to feed, never knowing where the next meal would come from._

 _Another child to protect, from the Red Flu, from the Immunes, from the Amy Granderson's of the world._

 _Another child to watch live a half-life, burdened by events that happened before he was born._

"Danny!" Kara's sharp tone brought him back to the present, realizing only then that Kara's hand was on his arm. She must have said his name more than once, Danny realized, seeing the concern on her face. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head, mentally shoving the image of Frankie with a toddler to the back of his mind. "Sorry. I was just thinking about Frankie."

Not a lie, but definitely a misdirection, one that appeared to work. Kara's eyes softened. "It feels like a lifetime ago, doesn't it?"

And then the atmosphere changed, the sudden tension letting Danny know without a doubt that Kara was thinking about the very topic that he wanted to avoid. _Their own future_. The two stared at each other, Kara's cuddling Cameron to her chest. Danny had always known that Kara wanted children. Back in the Arctic she mentioned that, having grown up an only child, she dreamed about a big family. But the idea always seemed so far-fetched, so unlikely given the world they lived in. Now, though, things were different. Now her dream was almost back within reach.

 _The cure changed everything._

 _And nothing._

"Kara..." Danny began, only to stop when Baby Cameron let out a wimper.

Cuddling the newborn to her chest, Kara shook her head. "We'll talk later."

Turning, she moved towards Frankie. "Finish up your picture, sweetheart. I'm going to take Baby Cameron to see his mother and then it will be time for bed."

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"Here's the school," Danny said, pushing open the door to one of the bunker's large gathering spaces, now divided by folding screens into classrooms, and moving towards the designated area. "Ella and Maddy will be joining the kindergarten class."

"They haven't had any formal school," Bobby noted cautiously. "You don't think that will be a problem?"

Danny shook his head. While he wasn't a teacher, he had seen enough people arrive at the camp to know how this would go. The twins were young and curious and would be fine. The kids that were the hardest were the teenagers. The ones who made it through middle school before the virus hit and saw finishing high school as pointless. "I'm sure they will catch up quickly. Their teacher, Mrs. Park, is great. There are fifteen children in her class, including the girls, and she individualizes the plan for each child."

"Really? That's impressive. Benefit of a small class, I suppose," Bobby smiled.

Mrs. Park recently used a different word to describe the size of her class. _Shrinking_ The current kindergarten class was comprised mostly of children who were infants when the Red Flu hit, and was a sharp 50% drop in class size from the year before. More susceptible to the Red Flu, and less likely to survive even if they managed to escape illness due to the difficulty in sourcing formula and basic medicine, children under six now accounted for less than four percent of the bunker population. And of that group most of them, like Frankie, were unplanned, although Doctor Scott recently expressed hope that the spread of the cure would trigger a baby boom.

 _Nobody ever said that the woman was realistic._

"Daddy!"

Danny grinned as a small blonde projectile crashed into his legs, giving him a quick hug before turning to look at the twins. "Who are you?"

"Frankie, that's rude," Danny admonished before making the introduction. "Frankie, meet Ella and Maddy. These are the little girls I told you about. They're twins."

"Oh," Frankie's eyes grew wide. "Daddy said you have the same birthday. Do you get two cakes?"

Maddy and Ella hung back, noticeably uncertain of how to handle the situation. It suddenly struck Danny that this might be the first time that the twins remembered seeing a child their own age. The thought was sobering. For all that Frankie had lost, from the moment of her birth she was surrounded by people, surrogate aunts and uncles and cousins. There had always been someone to play with her, to be with her, to take care of her if Danny and Kara couldn't.

 _Never any real risk that she would be left completely alone, needing to fend for herself like so many other children were._

"Daddy made us cupcakes," Ella finally ventured. "They were yellow with pink sprinkles."

Frankie beamed. "Bacon always makes me chocolate cake. Maybe you can have a party and he can make you cake!"

Maddy tugged at her father's shirt, her voice a whisper. "Can we have a party, Daddy? A real party? With friends? Like in the book?"

Bobby smiled. "I think that can be arranged. Don't you, Commander?"

"I do," Danny replied solemnly, mentally noting to speak to Bacon about a party later.

"Yeah cake!" Frankie shrieked, Maddy and Ella jumping at the sound.

The sound also caught the attention of Mrs. Park, and she crossed the space towards them. "You must be my new students, Ella and Maddy. Thank you for bringing them by, Commander Green."

"Always a pleasure, ma'am."

Taking the girls by the hand, Mrs. Park turned to Frankie. "Does Mrs. Dowler know where you are?"

Pouting, Frankie shook her head. "No."

"Better get back then," Mrs. Park suggested, smiling as the child darted away. She turned to Bobby. "Will you be joining us, Mr. Stein?"

"Yes, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. I often find that it helps the children settle in."

As Mrs. Park ushered the girls towards the other children, Bobby gazed after Frankie. "She isn't shy, is she?"

"No," Danny replied, amused. Nobody would ever describe Frankie as a wallflower.

"She's delightful. You are a very fortunate man." Bobby stuck out his hand. "I'm sure you have other place to be. Thank you again, Commander. For everything."

Turning to move back towards command, Bobby's words echoed through Danny's head over and over again. _Fortunate._

 _A beautiful wife._

 _A delightful daughter._

 _A full belly._

 _A safe place to sleep at night._

Maybe he really was.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well, we're not not talking," Danny said, lying on the futon in Kelly's office. He stretched. The futon was actually much more comfortable than it looked. Maybe they should get one for Frankie. Now that she was getting bigger it was harder and harder having the three of them share a bed.

"I see," Kelly replied. She was seated on the floor, legs crossed, as she arranged books on the shelves. That made it easier to talk, somehow. Not having to look at her or meet her eyes. "So, to clarify. You aren't fighting. And you're talking. And Kara hasn't said that she's upset. So what exactly is bothering you?"

Kelly had a way of putting things that made Danny feel, not stupid because she always took his concerns seriously, but a little bit like a hysterical teenager making a mountain out of a molehill.

"Kara wants more kids. I think. I mean, she didn't say that. But I know that she does. She did, anyway, back before." Realizing that he was making no sense, Danny started over. "Kara had a rough childhood. Her mother had a lot of problems. Kara's dad died before Kara was born, and Debbie drank a lot apparently. When we first met, Kara told me about this dream she had of owning her own house. One that overflowed with kids and dogs and laughter. I wanted to be the guy that made her dream come true. And I could have been, back then."

"And now?"

"I'm not that guy anymore."

"What does that mean?"

Irritated by the question, Danny scowled. "I can't give Kara any of those things! She wants security and a house and a family and all I can give her is a crappy room in a fifty-year-old bunker. One that could be overrun by the Immunes at any moment."

Kelly set down the book she was shelving, turning to look at him. "And you think Kara blames you for the loss of that dream? You? Rather than the virus? Rather than the Immunes?"

Put that way, he _did_ sound like a melodramatic teenager. But it wasn't that simple. Maybe it was before, back when the Red Flu was still destroying everything it touched. When the idea of having another baby was foolhardy, no matter what Carlton said to the contrary But things were different now.

 _Now there was the possibility that Kara could have that dream._

 _And he was the one saying no._

"I'll ask a different question," Kelly pressed. "Could someone else give Kara those things?"

Danny never thought of himself as the jealous sort, it was rather hard to be when his wife spent most of her time surrounded by other men, but Kelly's question drew an instant reaction.

 _Over his dead body._

 _Most likely literally._

Danny tried to consider the question objectively. "If the plan to spread the cure works and if we defeat the Immunes, life could go back to normal. Then it could happen."

"Lot of ifs there, Danny," Kelly replied, turning back to her books.

"Maybe the house is a stretch, but she could still have another baby," Danny replied, his voice hoarse.

"That's true." Kelly paused. "What about you, Danny? If things went back to the way they were, what would you want? Is there any scenario where you would want another child?"

Danny opened his mouth to respond in the negative only to hesitate, the image of Frankie holding a little boy's hand popping into his head unbidden. It had been so long since he considered the future, since he focused on anything more than day-to-day survival, that the idea of wanting _more_ felt almost greedy. And yet...

Grudgingly he admitted. "I don't know."

"Then I suggest that you think about it," Kelly answered. "You and Kara may not be as far apart on this as you think."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Danny walked through the door to the set of rooms assigned to the Burk-Bivas family, his jaw almost hitting the ground at the sight of Carlton. If it wasn't so disturbing, Danny would have laughed at the bizarre picture Carlton made, his face so swollen that he looked like he was in one of those crazy mirrors in amusement park that caused everything to be distorted.

"Yellow jackets? Have I taught you nothing over the past four years?"

Carlton might be a city boy, a lifelong resident of Chicago before he joined the Navy, but four years of roughing it should have taught him _something_ about nature - such as the need to avoid any ground that looked like it might be harboring bees. The team had been on the lookout for a patch of wild blueberries Diaz recalled seeing a few days prior while escorting a small group of survivors from the camp to the bunker. With over a thousand people to feed through the winter, any natural source of food was a godsend. Apparently Carlton have been too busy looking for blue to notice yellow.

"Did Ravit send you to mock me?" Carlton grumbled.

"Nope, just checking for myself whether your request for sick time was legit or an excuse to extend paternity leave."

 _As though two weeks of light duty really counted as leave._

Reaching down to pick up his fussing son, Carlton took the time to flip Danny off. "Sleep deprivation."

"Yeah, sure."

"Do you want to hold him?" Carlton asked, offering to pass Cameron over.

Danny quickly stepped back. "He's too little. Might drop him."

Carlton laughed, depositing the infant in Danny's arms. "You act like you don't have one of your own."

Staring at the baby. Danny tried to remember Frankie being so small. She had been, of course, less than six pounds at birth, compared to Cameron's whopping seven and a half. He was still amazed that Ravit managed to pop out such a big baby. Looking at Cameron now, though, all Danny could think was how small he was. How fragile. By comparison, Frankie seemed so sturdy. So capable of taking care of herself. Danny remembered the moment when Doc Rios placed her in his arms, the wonder that filled him as he stared at his perfect little girl. Those moments of pure joy before reality came crashing down in the form of his team stumbling into the infirmary after a skirmish with Granderson's people, reminding him just what kind of world his daughter was born into.

"Frankie was the first baby that I ever held, you know," Carlton shared absently while folding a stack of clean diaper. "I didn't want to. Kara had to pee and you were off somewhere. I tried to get Ravit to take Frankie instead but the woman just laughed at me. It wasn't so bad after the first time. I actually kind of missed it when she got bigger. She's not so cuddly now. You ever miss those days?"

"Nope," Danny answered immediately. "I like my sleep."

 _As though he didn't wake up every night anyway, haunted by the faces of the dad._

Carlton snorted, causing little Cameron to start, his forehead wrinkling.

"He looks like you," Danny offered.

"Nah, that face is pure Cam," Carlton replied, his tone tinged with sorrow.

Danny took a chance, raising a topic they typically ignored by mutual agreement. "You ever wonder if he's still out there? His ship docked in Alaska and we know they closed their border early."

Carlton was quiet for so long that Danny wondered whether he had made a mistake. Finally Carlton blew out a breath. "When we sent out that first message, I half expected Cam to show up. Raymond said she wasn't sure how far the message would go, since it was jumping from one phone to the next, and I kept wondering, could it make it that far north? Silly, I know."

"I checked my cell that night. Right before we left," Danny admitted.

"Think we'll ever know for sure?"

Danny mulled over the question. A year ago, even a month ago, he would have said no. But now...

"Yeah, I think we will. Just need to speed the cure, crush the Immunes, and rebuild the country first."

"Good to know that you have manageable expectations," Carlton retorted, laughing, before the conversation moved on.

But later that night, as he lay next to his sleeping wife and daughter, Danny found himself thinking again about Frankie, about Cameron, and imaging what it might be like to once again experience that joy.


	19. Flannel Shirts

_Chapter 19 - Flannel Shirts_

x

"You sure you feel okay?" Danny asked, slanting a sideways glance towards Eddie.

The two men stood at the edge of another football field, this one in Missouri, watching a line of civilians slowly wind their way around the clearing as they waited their turn for a vaccine. After experimenting with a few other locations, including a stadium that turned out to be full of decomposing bodies, Captain Slattery reverted to choosing remote high schools for their distribution sites. Although using schools as a default location was a risk, a pattern that the Immunes could theoretically exploit, as Captain Slattery stated every time someone mentioned the concern, every damn town between Portland and Los Angeles had a school. So unless the Immunes were tipped off to _where_ the distribution was happening, the risk remained low, and if the Immunes _were_ tipped off, well, chances were that they would know the location anyway.

So, once again, the team was at a high school. Like all of the prior distribution sites, this one had single road access that allowed the team to control the flow of traffic and the school was set in the woods, rather than in town, so they could make an inconspicuous entry. Plus, the wide, open spaces that used to be sports fields meant that there was plenty of space to process people while still keeping an eye on them.

Nine distributions in, the routine was fairly streamline. A text message sent forty-eight hours in advance gave the time, place and location. The forward team arrived before sunrise to scout the area and check for danger before the secondary group arrived, one comprised of civilian volunteers. The group was Mrs. Baker's idea and, like most of her proposals, was brilliant. With the civilian group giving out the vaccinations and assisting the sick, Danny's team was free to focus on security and other logistics.

Today, ninety minutes into the distribution, they had already given out almost three hundred vaccinations. If Doctors Scott and Tophet hadn't managed to convert the cure into a nasal spray, they would never have been able to keep up with demand. Still, Danny couldn't relax. While the prior eight distributions had gone smoothly, everyone knew that eventually the Immunes would find them. Valerie's text program appeared to be working as expected, deleting the message at the first sign of the dead-man app, but there was no way to eliminate word-of-mouth. As more and more people received the cure, and word spread further and further, it was only a matter of time before someone said the wrong thing to the wrong person.

 _Potentially leading to a bloodbath._

Eddie visibly rolled his eyes at Danny's question. "It's been two months, Green. At some point you're going to have to start believing that I'm not going to keel over. Or, if you aren't going to believe me, at least trust your own damn doctor."

Danny grunted. He knew that Doctor Scott had given Eddie a clean bill of health, but it didn't matter. Because Danny wasn't worried about the Red Flu. He was worried about the Immunes. About freak accidents. About heart attacks.

 _About what the hell he would say if he had to tell Amber that her husband survived the deadliest plague known to man only to die in a random football field in Missouri._

Not that he could tell any of that to Eddie. "What about your back?"

Eddie visibly bristled at the reminder of the helicopter accident in Afghanistan that ended his military career. "The only way to find out if I can handle it is to put me in the field. Would I be here if things were like before? Hell no. But things have changed. And you don't have anyone else."

 _You don't have anyone else._

That, of course, was the problem. Sure they were now close to two thousand people living in the bunker, with a hundred more staying temporarily in the camp while being vetted, but few of them had any sort of police or military training. When the virus first exploded, active duty, reserves, and police were all put into service on the front lines, transporting supplies, guarding safe zones, and providing health care.

 _Few of them survived._

Cursing himself for bringing up something he knew to be a sore spot, Danny backed off. "Just making sure you're doing okay. That was the first time you rode a motorcycle in what? Five years? Don't tell me that you aren't feeling it."

The stiffness in his shoulders relaxing slightly, Eddie chuckled. "That is true. Although pretty sure that what we were doing barely qualified as riding. More like wading through the mud. When is the next distribution?"

"Three days, but Burk's team is handling it." This would be Carlton's first distribution run, the past eight having coincided with his paternity leave and then the yellow-jacket incident, so Danny would be riding along. But the hope was that, eventually, they could have multiple teams making these runs, maybe even have multiple distributions going on simultaneously. "I'm sure you and Amber still have a lot to do to get settled. Set up the room, that sort of thing."

The innocuous comment drew a black glare from Eddie. "You heard too?"

"Heard what?"

A long-suffering sigh. "Slattery assigned me to carpentry duty originally. I figured that it couldn't be too hard. I remember your dad teaching us to whittle back in the day and that was easy enough. Anyway, turns out that I am not very good with saws. Ruined an entire bed-frame before Holden kicked me out."

Danny snorted. "Seriously?"

"Yup, now you know why I'm out here." Eddie shrugged. "This is apparently the only thing I'm good at."

"Nobody expects you to...," Danny began, only to be interrupted.

"I want to," Eddie replied. "And so do most of the people in the bunker. They can see everything that Captain Chandler has done, everything that Doctor Scott's done, everything _you've_ done. And now they want to return the favor. Hell, look at those people out there. When Mrs. Baker raised the idea of creating a volunteer group to help spread the cure there were over a hundred people who signed up within minutes. Everyone wants to do their part. Don't turn them down because you don't want to ask for help."

"It's dangerous out here."

The moment that the words left his mouth, Danny realized how ridiculous they were. Eddie _lived_ out here. Four long years of hiding and moving and scrambling to survive while Danny enjoyed the relative comfort of the Nathan James and then the camp.

"And we're doing what we can to make it safer." Eddie's response was calm, measured. "So what is your plan? Assuming this all works out? You heading back to Connecticut."

Instantly a two-story house with a white picket fence, German Shepherd looping around the backyard, two tawny-haired children tumbling after him flashed through Danny's mind. The image had been appearing more and more often, and Danny almost cursed Kelly for making him think about how things could be. For making him consider what might be if the cure was spread, if the Immunes were gone.

Forcing the image away, Danny shook his head. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're only on our second state. Still another forty-eight to go. At this rate, we're talking years just to get through the US, never mind the rest of the world."

"Pessimism will get your nowhere," Eddie retorted. "Amber and I have it all planned out. We'll get a little beach house in Florida. Enjoy the sun. Let Tyler spend every day at Disney. Never lay eyes on snow again."

Surprised, Danny asked, "You won't go back to Connecticut?"

"Nah. Too many memories." Eddie shook his head. "Besides, how could anyone possibly say no to sun and beach? Think about it. Kara lying out in little bikini, eh?"

The realization that he had never seen his wife in a bathing suit of any kind was a reminder of how warped their entire relationship had been, but before Danny could respond, Tex interrupted.

"Hey boss!" Texas nonsensical salute earned a chuckle from Eddie and a grimace from Danny. While the older man had certainly grown on him, and Danny now trusted Tex to watch his back, he remained suspicious of the man's perpetual good mood.

"You need something, Nolan?"

"Our resident tech guru said she's got to talk to you," Tex replied, shrugging.

Danny sighed, feeling a headache coming on. His plan to bring Valerie on the first distribution run had backfired completely when Doctor Scott discovered that, among Valerie's numerous talents, she possessed an eidetic memory. One which allowed her to provide the doctor with a detailed accounting of the events at the site, as well as to create a computer model demonstrating the potential impact of the vaccine on survival in the area. All of which meant that, when it was time for a second distribution run, Doctor Scott insisted that Valerie come along in her stead. It was a compromise that Captain Chandler was only happy to make, and one that left Danny praying for deafness.

"What the hell is the problem now, Raymond?" He snapped at the woman, noticing that she was holding her hoodie tightly over her head. "Too hot? Too cold? Water not bubbly enough?"

But instead of the slightly sarcastic response he was expecting, Valerie leaned closer, her voice a whisper. "Hector Martinez is here."

"Hector Martinez? Are you sure?" Danny scanned the crowd, instantly alert.

 _Hector Martinez_. The Ramseys' top military strategist. If he was here, the Immunes wouldn't be far off.

"Heard a rumor that he defected," Tex added. At Valerie's scoff, Tex shrugged. "Or was run off. Doesn't take much to piss Ned Ramsey off. The guy is a loon."

"You recognize him too, Tex?" Danny asked.

The man shook his head. "Sure looks like his picture but never saw him in person."

"You're certain?" Danny asked, turning back to Valerie.

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Valerie retorted, the fear in her eyes contradicting her flip words.

 _She might be wrong, but she wasn't lying._

 _Dammit_.

They were only ninety minutes into the four hours scheduled for this distribution and there were at least a hundred people waiting with more arriving. As usual, Doc Rios was knee-deep in patients, both those suffering from the Red Flu and those with other ailments. After his experience in Gatlinburg, Rios began bringing a more comprehensive medical kit, treating everything from broken bones to whooping cough. Worst of all, Captain Slattery and his team were currently two states west, searching for supplies, and in no position to provide backup.

Picking up his radio, Danny tapped in the emergency code. His gaze scanned the crowd again. How had Valerie even noticed the guy given the number of people who were here? Finally, Danny caught a shock of black hair. "Plaid shirt? Baseball cap over his eyes?"

"That's him."

Having made a decision, Danny nodded, reaching for his radio again. "Kawalski, suspect is in a plaid shirt with a blue baseball cap. Keep a line on him. Tex, with me. We're going to go have a word with Mrs. Barnes, see if we can move this along a bit. Eddie, stay with Raymond. If this goes to hell, make sure that she gets out of here."

"He's not alone," Tex murmured as they moved as casually as possible through the crowd. After stopping to respond to a question regarding whether the cure was previously tested on infants - a question that Danny attempted to respond to politely despite the absurdity of the request, _w_ _hy yes, infants who don't receive the cure die -_ Danny looked in the direction indicated. Sure enough, several men stood throughout the crowd, all of them alone, wearing baseball caps pulled over their eyes.

"I count at least three," Danny replied. Tex nodded. "Give Rios and Mig a head's up while I talk to Mrs. Barnes then circle around. Have Wolf stick with them."

Splitting off from Tex, Danny headed towards the distribution lines where Mrs. Barnes stood directing traffic. She smiled brightly as he approached. "Commander Green! How are you?"

Hoping that the woman would remember the prearranged code to let her know that they might have a problem, Danny picked up a container of water. "Just a little thirsty." He took a sip. "Thought I might have seen a bear out in the woods. Anyone here know what the local wildlife is like?"

 _Possible Immune presence, be on guard._

Mrs. Barnes began coughing, and a quick glance at her face confirmed that the message was received. Still, she kept her composure, quickly moving a family with several children through the checkpoint without the usual paperwork. If there was going to be a problem, the goal was to have as many people as possible vaccinated and out of here before the shooting started.

A man in line chuckled. "Plenty of black bears around these parts but they're mostly harmless. Prefer berries and fish to people."

"That's good to know." Smiling, Danny picked up a case of water and began moving down the line, passing out a bottle here and there, moving slowly so as not to tip off Hector. More than ten minutes passed before he reached Martinez. Confirming that Tex was several yards away, observing without looking like he was doing anything more than shooting the shit, Danny moved directly to his target.

"Water?"

The man shook his head. "No, thanks."

Nodding to Tex, Danny dropped his voice. "Take the water, Hector."

Danny had to admit that the man was good. He barely reacted, only the very corner of his eye twitching. "You have the wrong person. My name is Tomas."

"I knew exactly who you are Hector. And I know who you work for. Now what I want to know is what the hell you're doing here. So you can take the water and come answer my questions, or I can tell my man to go ahead and blow your brains out."

The man's eyes narrowed, no doubt judging whether Danny would really execute him in the middle of a field full of civilians and children. Danny stared back, daring the man to test him.

 _Because there wasn't a chance in hell that Hector was leaving this field without Danny's authorization._

"Where are we going?" Hector asked finally, stepping out of line.

"Concession stand." Danny indicated the building, knowing that Rob would already be inside waiting. As they moved, people shied away, their gazes wary. Still, nobody appeared to be panicking.

 _Yet_.

Entering the building, Danny took a quick peak back, noticing that at least two of the men Tex pointed out were following, Tex trailing them from a distance. Closing the door, Danny turned to find Rob already patting Hector down, locating only a knife and pistol. Checking Hector's back pocket, Rob pulled out a wallet and then faltered, his face growing dark before he tossed something to Danny.

Taking a look at the card, Danny's jaw dropped. "A military ID?"

 _No wonder half the surviving population thought that the US military was out to kill them_ _._

A slight scuffle outside the shack caught Danny's attention just before the door opened to reveal Tex pushing a large African-American man inside. "Our friend here insists on speaking with you, Commander."

The man pulled himself up, confident despite the circumstances. "Commander Green. It appears that we've gotten off on the wrong foot."

The man's face, his mannerisms, were incredibly familiar. Yet Danny couldn't place him. "Not sure there is a right foot when you are associating with murderers and terrorists."

"I'm going to reach into my pocket," the man continued as thought Danny hadn't spoken. Moving slowly, he pulled out his wallet. "I'm part of the US Navy, just like you. My name is Commander Cameron Burk."

"The fuck it is." _There wasn't a chance in hell that Burk's brother would turn traitor. No way. No how._

The words slipped out, drawing a baffled look from Cameron. "Here, take my ID."

Danny ignored the offer. "Not exactly hard to take one off a dead man now, is it?"

"I was on the USS Kidd. We put in at Fort Richardson up in Alaska when the Red Flu hit. Managed to make it through the worst of the sickness. Two years ago I was on a hunting trip when the base was hit by missiles." If the fury in Cameron's eyes was fake, he was one of the best actors that Danny had ever seen. "I managed to save three hundred people. Three hundred out of a thousand. That's when we decided to go on the offense. We learned that the Ramsey brothers were behind the strike and we've been chasing them ever since."

 _Missiles_. That certainly sounded like the Ramseys. Danny spared a thought for Jack, wondered if his daughter was one of those killed at Fort Richardson.

"Uh-huh, and you ended up in his," Danny jerked a thumb to Hector, "company how?"

"Hector was Columbia military," Cameron explained. "He was on an Alaskan cruise when the borders closed and his ship put in at Fairbanks. Stuck in Alaska, he joined us at Fort Richardson. After we traced the Ramseys to Louisiana, he went undercover. Our plan was to use the information for targeted attacks, but when we started hearing rumors about a cure we decided a change of priorities might be in order."

Denny stared at the man claiming to be Cameron Burk. _Was it even possible? Could Carlton's brother have survived? Or was this all an elaborate lie cooked up to get inside the bunker?_

"How do you know that Hector wasn't an immune plant? That he wasn't responsible for the attack on Fort Richardson?"

A snarl drew Danny's attention to Hector, who Rob continue to hold a gun on. "My wife, my sons. They were killed in the attack. I will not rest until they are avenged."

Plausible, _if_ any of this was true. "If you're immune, what is your interest in the cure?"

"I said that Hector is immune, not the rest of us," Cameron corrected. "I wanted to check you out. If the operation looked legit, I thought that we might be able to help. Hector has a lot of insight into how the Immunes work."

Danny glanced at Tex, who shrugged. Clearly he was in the same spot as Danny. While Cameron _seemed_ legit, the entire situation was a little too convenient. A Colombian general who became a spy in the Immune camp? Carlton's brother being alive?

 _At least the last could be proven, even if his loyalties remained in doubt._

"I need proof that you are in fact Cameron Burk."

Cameron studied Danny, a light suddenly dawning. "You knew Carlton. Have you heard anything? I've always wondered if he might have..."

The man's voice faded and, once again, Danny couldn't believe that the emotion in Cameron's eyes was fake. Refusing to give anything away, Danny simply stared. "I'm waiting."

Cameron gestured towards his wallet. "There's a picture in the back."

Danny flipped the wallet over, sliding the photograph out. It was one that he recognized. A picture of a much-younger Carlton and another boy, one who looked an awful lot like the man currently claiming to be Cameron, standing next to their parents in front of Lake Michigan. Carlton had an identical print in his wallet. A print that his mother gave him before he left for the Naval Academy, one of the few pictures that he still had of his family. While it was possible for someone to have copied the print, the wear pattern and familiar scrawl on the back of the picture indicated that Cameron Burk was exactly who he claimed to be. _Carlton's brother._

"Commander Burk, I suggest that you call off your men and make yourself comfortable," Danny said.

"What are you proposing?" Cameron asked cautiously.

"First, my team is going to finish what we started here, which is vaccinating these people," Danny replied, to which Cameron nodded. "Then you and I are going to take a little field trip. And let your brother decide what to do next."

Cameron blinked, stumbling slightly as he felt for a wall. "Carlton's alive?"

If Danny had any more doubts that Cameron was who he claimed to be, they were now gone. _The hint of tears. The sigh of relief._ There was no way that could be faked.

"Alive and kicking. And in for one hell of a shock when he sees you."


	20. Flasks

_Ch. 20 - Flasks_

x

"Thought that you were spending tonight with your brother," Danny commented when Carlton appeared out of the darkness, carrying a lawn chair that he settled next to Danny. Carlton took a moment to pull up his hood and adjust his scarf before sitting. Although no snow had yet fallen, the temperature was dropping more every day and the wind whistling through the clearing made Danny's chosen spot uncomfortable, at best. After an hour outside, Danny wasn't sure he could feel his toes.

Thankfully, Carlton did not come empty-handed, passing Danny a cup of Tex's homemade moonshine. While it didn't always go down smoothly, the end result was always pleasant oblivion. "I am."

"Your _real_ brother. Cameron," Danny added, in case that was unclear. "He's leaving tomorrow, right? Recon for Michener's rescue? You were supposed to be playing chess."

Danny might think that attempting to "rescue" a man who appeared to be nothing more than an Immune puppet was pointless, but even he could see little downside to sending Cameron's team south to investigate the possibility. If the man really was a prisoner, albeit in a gilded cage, as Captain Chandler insisted with, surprisingly, Valerie's concurrence, Michener's rescue could give their entire operation legitimacy. If not, well, intel was almost never a bad thing.

"Cam begged off. He's busy yelling at his guys for something or other. Some bullshit about a pandemic being no excuse for drinking in uniform," Carlton replied with a swig of his own drink, his cavalier attitude towards a speech that he himself would have given without hesitation four years ago earning a chuckle from Danny.

Following the jubilation of their initial reunion and Cameron's rather awkward attempt at holding his nephew and namesake, the Burk brothers immediately began clashing over how to best utilize their combined forces. To Cameron's great displeasure, Chandler and Slattery sided with Carlton, squashing Cameron's plan to engage in a direct attack on the Immunes' compound, one which had the unfortunate side effect of putting the bunker population at risk. Instead, Cameron's men would assist in the effort to spread of the cure, while using Hector's information to beef up security and engage in strategic raids. After a week of avoiding each other, Cameron and Carlton had, for lack of a better word, kissed and made up, but an underlying tension remained between them.

"I'm sorry." Danny spoke without thinking, realizing only after the words escaped that Carlton would have no idea what he was talking about. "That things didn't go the way you hoped. With Cameron, I mean."

Carlton remained silent for several moments. "That wasn't the Red Flu."

"Huh?"

"Cam and I...we always fought. Two boys. Two years apart. Always competing. If I said the sky was blue, he would insist that it was green. That's why I went to the Academy, you know, to show Cam that I could." Carlton snorted, tipping the flask to refill both of their cups. "I guess I thought all that would be different now. Thought the Red Flu would change that. But...you can't change who you are. Cam's never going to see me as more than his little brother."

Danny mulled over Carlton's words. He had never really though what things would be like _after_ finding his family, always focusing on that first step. Getting that text or phone call. Walking into the house. Having his father wrap his arms around him. Watching his mother break into tears. Seeing his brother all grown up. Listening to the sound of his sister's laughter. But the dreams never went further.

 _Because they couldn't_.

Danny could no longer picture where his family might be. In one of the last texts that he received from his mother, Joanne mentioned heading to a safe zone near Hartford. But he had no way of knowing whether they made it there or not and, even if they did, it was unlikely that the safe zone was still intact. If they left, would they have returned to Cornwall? Or like Eddie and Amber would they have gone looking for a better place to live? Would they still be together? Or would they have been separated like so many others?

The further down the rabbit hole that Danny went, the fuzzier the picture grew. After four years, his image of his brother was so hazy that Danny wasn't sure he would recognize him at all. Twenty-one now, Chris had missed the end of high school, missed college, missed going out drinking for his twenty-first birthday. Rather than partying his way into adulthood the way Danny did, Chris would have fought his way there, given far too much responsibility far too quickly, just like Kat and Ray and Colin.

Caroline, only a year younger than Danny, would have changed less in appearance. Still, she might be married, might have children. Hell, _Chris_ might be married with children. Families that knew nothing about Danny, the way that Frankie knew nothing about her grandparents or aunt or uncle other than the stories that Danny shared on the rare occasion. But even then he often wondered how much they meant to Frankie. Whether the stories of mythical things such as cartoons and sailboats and frosties sounded any different from fairy tales to the child.

"Besides, can't break tradition," Carlton said abruptly, holding up his cup. "To Benz."

"To Benz." Danny echoed, lifting his cup. "Four years. Four fucking years."

 _Four years since his best friend in the world, his brother-in-arms, a man he never imagined living without, took his own life._

 _Four years since Danny's faith in the world - in humankind - was shattered._

"A lifetime ago," Carlton added, once again refilling their drinks. Danny took another sip. The fact that he was no longer cold was probably a bad sign, but he assumed that Carlton would have told someone where they were. Slattery might be deliberately ignoring the fact that he and Carlton were outside the bunker without permission, but he wasn't going to let two of his senior officers freeze to death.

 _As the Slattery of old would have said, it would generate too much damn paperwork._

"Amen to that," Danny echoed. Sometimes he had trouble remembering what life was like back then. _Before_. A snort escaped. At Carlton's curious look, Danny clarified. "Instead of B.C., we should say B.F. Before Frankie."

Carlton's raised eyebrow indicated that he didn't find the suggestion as funny as Danny. "I prefer A.F. You were kind of an ass back then. I distinctively recall telling Kara to dump you on your face the moment we hit Norfolk."

"What? You knew?" Danny might be a little drunk, but he was _certain_ that Carlton, like most of the crew, found out about Danny and Kara's relationship soon after they arrived in Baltimore and Amy Granderson outed Kara's delicate condition.

"Dude, did the two of you really think that nobody could see you in that alcove?" Carlton snickered. "Your backside was sticking halfway across the p-way."

Danny wondered why he was shocked. If there was one thing that he had learned about Carlton over the past four years, it was that the guy was loyal. And Carlton might not have cared a rat's ass what happened to Danny if he got written up, but Carlton did care about Kara. The last thing Carlton would have done was to screw up her career by reporting her for fraternization. Glancing sideways in the dim moonlight, Danny wondered what would have happened if Frankie didn't kill himself. Chances were good that he and Carlton wouldn't be sitting here right now freezing to death - and not just because today wouldn't be the anniversary of Benz's death if he had made it off that cruise ship. No, it was more than that. Danny's relationship with Carlton was built on shared loss. Shared pain. Shared anguish.

 _Starting with Frankie._

For four long years they had gone through hell together, from the night when Carlton joined Danny on the deck of the Nathan James, hair still wet from the decontamination room, and stood with him in silence.

 _The cruise ship. Atlanta. Baltimore. Deer Park._

Each loss, each blow, loss, pushed them closer and closer together, cementing a bond that could never be shattered. That was why Carlton ditched his brother to be here. Why Danny would have done the same were the positions reversed. They might have started off as two men with nothing more in common than being posted to the same ship, but when the chips were down, they believed in the same values.

 _Loyalty._

 _Duty._

 _Courage._

 _Honor._

 _Family._

The Red Flu had destroyed Danny's life, but also given him a new one with Kara and Frankie and Carlton and Ravit.

 _Joy out of sorrow_.

"I'm still mad at him." The admission wasn't planned, simply blurted out, Tex's moonshine apparently stronger than Danny realized. But the second the words exited his mouth, Danny knew that they were true. He was angry.

 _Angry that Frankie didn't fight to live._

 _Angry that his pleas to Frankie meant so little._

 _._ _Angry that Frankie left him_ _, leaving Danny to fight this fight alone._

Carlton didn't look over, staring up at the stars. "Yup."

Something about the calm acceptance amused Danny and he began laughing. "Isn't this the part where you tell me that I'm not coping or something?"

"Nah, that's Kara's thing," Carlton drawled. "I figure, if being pissed off gets you through the day, go for it. Besides, I'm not sure that any of us are coping."

"You seem to be doing okay," Danny observed. "Slattery didn't put you on two week _voluntary_ leave."

"I've had my moments," Carlton admitted. "Losing Miller was hard."

The memory of another night, one to which Danny brought the alcohol, hung between them.

"How do you do it?" Danny asked, shifting topics. "Stay positive," he added when Carlton cocked his head.

Carlton considered the question. "I was a history major at the Academy, did I ever tell you that?"

"History?" Danny _definitely_ would have remembered that, if only to mock Carlton unmercifully. "Nope."

"I was. Did you know that there have been five major pandemics before the Red Flu?" Carlton waited until Danny shook his head in the negative. "The first was a smallpox outbreak in the Second Century that killed up to 2,000 people a day. The second one was the black death in Sixth Century. That one killed around forty percent of Europe's population. The third, in the Fourteenth Century, was the Black Plague. During that one, some estimates say that sixty percent of the population died. In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed upwards of twenty-five million people. The fifth one was HIV/AIDS, which was still killing people when we left Norfolk. Probably still is today. And those just scrape the surface. If we look at what smallpox did to the Native Americas, well, it probably has the Red Flu beat in terms of death rates. We don't really know because so few people were left."

Danny took another sip of his cup, the liquid no longer burning but spreading pleasantly through his stomach. "Weren't you supposed to be telling me how you stay positive?"

"You know what all of those pandemics have in common?" Carlton didn't wait for an answer. "Humanity survived. No matter how bad things got, things always got better. Even back when we didn't have doctors or medicine or even understand what the hell germs were, people eventually stopped dying. And life moved on. People regrouped and rebuilt. No matter what God or nature threw at us, we made it through. No reason to think this time was any different. The best way to predict the future is to look at the past, and the past told me that this wasn't the end."

Dumbfounded, Danny practically sputtered, "History? That's your reason?"

"Got a better one?"

 _Actually no_. Not that Danny planned to admit such a fact. "But why us? What made you so certain that we would survive? What made us so special?"

Carlton shrugged. "We survived the initial wave. That one's always the worst. Statistically the longer we made it, the more likely we were to ultimately survive."

"History again?" Danny asked, skeptically.

"I was right, wasn't I?"

"What if you weren't, though?" Danny pressed.

"Then I'd be dead and I would never know," Carlton replied.

 _History_.

This whole time Carlton was convinced that they would survive for no other reason than humanity always had. So simple.

 _Yet ultimately so true._

Danny swirled the liquid in his cup. "Remember when you told me that Ravit was pregnant?"

" _Why in God's name would you want to bring a child into this world?"_

 _"Because I believe that things are going to get better. I believe that Doctor Scott's going to do it. I believe that there is a future."_

 _"God, I wish I was still that gullible."_

Carlton chuckled. "How could I forget? You suggested that I go get my head checked."

"You were right." Danny tossed down the rest of his drink. "About Doctor Scott. About the cure. About things getting better. About us having a future."

"Is that an apology?"

Danny stared up at the sky. "Yeah, I think it is."

Grinning, Carlton dumped the rest of his flask into Danny's cup. "Well, hell, Green, we absolutely need to drink to that."

x

x

 _A/N - I played with the timing of Benz's death a little to fit into this story better. Thank you to those who continue to follow and read and (especially!) review this story. I appreciate every one of you._ _Happy 2019 all!_


	21. Messages

_Ch. 21 - Messages_

x

"History, can you believe it?" Danny tucked the pile of Kelly's books onto the top shelf. "I suppose he realized that there was no way to hide the fact now that his brother is here. But really, he could have picked robotics or cyber operations or something _interesting_ and instead he picked history."

"Uh-huh." Kelly seemed about as amused as Kara was when Danny asked her the same question, although Kelly hid her annoyance better. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that Danny woke Kara up at 0400, not _entirely_ sober, to ask her why she never told him that Carlton was a history major. That in turn woke Frankie and Danny quickly found himself in the cafeteria entertaining a _very_ wide-awake preschooler while his wife slept and trying not to vomit at every spoonful of the scrambled duck eggs Bacon insisted would help settle his stomach. "And how do you feel about Carlton's suggestion? That we need to look at current events through the lens of history?"

Oh yeah, she was definitely annoyed if she was pulling out an _how do you feel_ question. Danny vaguely wondered what Kelly's undergrad major was. Done with the books, he returned to the futon, unable to stop a chuckle. "Whatever gets him through the day, I suppose."

Kelly arched an eyebrow. "I had imagined that a night without any responsibilities might be beneficial. That is why I recommended to Captain Chandler that he turn a blind eye to you and Lieutenant Burk's ill-advised decision to leave the bunker and become intoxicated. I hope that I was not mistaken."

Danny winced at the cutting tone in Kelly's voice, his stomach sinking. He didn't realize that Captain Chandler knew that he and Carlton left the bunker, and broke about a dozen orders (some of which Danny himself had suggested). Even though Captain Slattery's punishments tended to be harsher, somehow disappointing Captain Chandler always made Danny feel worse. Sobering, he tried to remember Kelly's original question. "History is a good reminder, I guess, that this has happened before. People thought the world was ending, and it didn't. Those people back in Roman times. They didn't know anything about germs or medicine or how the black plague started. They thought the gods were cursing them. And maybe the gods were. Maybe the gods are cursing us now. But..."

"But that's not what you believe."

"No." Danny paused, considering. "What Carlton said, about this happening before. He was right. It's happened before. And it will probably happen again. But ... maybe not. We stopped the black plague. Maybe we can stop this too."

"It sounds like Carlton gave you some things to consider," Kelly commented.

"Sure." Danny grinned. "Doesn't mean I won't still give him shit about his degree. _History._ Unbelievable."

A smile flitted across Kelly's face.

"What?" Danny asked cautiously, the sudden change in mood making him suspicious.

"Nothing." But that smile continued to play along her lips. Danny waited, silently staring until Kelly elaborated. "I've never seen you this way before."

"What way?"

Kelly took a moment to consider her response, her head tipping to the side. "Playful."

Danny balked. "That's not true. I'm like this all the time."

"When?" Kelly challenged. "Because I'm willing to bet that if I pulled a random person from the corridor that they would disagree."

That standard seemed ridiculously unfair to Danny. Of course he was serious around the camp. These people depended on him to keep them alive, which meant that he had to maintain a certain amount of decorum. _But that wasn't who he was_. He was the guy known for pulling elaborate pranks on his team. The guy who had a secret affair on a five hundred foot destroyer. The guy who worked hard and partied harder, using morning PT to recover from a hangover. Except...

 _When was the last time he did any of those things?_

Danny couldn't remember the last time he surprised Kara with a kiss outside of their quarters, or played a practical joke, or joined any of the camp's entertainment except under orders. Besides his impromptu evening with Carlton, he couldn't even remember the last time he had a drink.

 _But that was because of circumstances._

He and Kara couldn't disappear when they had a little girl to take care of. He couldn't play a practical joke on Captain Slattery when the man had just returned from a supply run prominently featuring the dead and dying. And he certainly couldn't get drunk in front of the people who depended on him to make decisions for them.

In other words, Kelly was right. "I play with Frankie," Danny argued, more to himself than Kelly.

Kelly shook her head. "That's not what I mean, Danny. Your love and devotion to your daughter is not in question. I have no doubt that you've experience moments of happiness and joy with Frankie, or that you enjoy your time with Frankie or Kara or Carlton. But when was the last time you did something silly?"

Moments passed as Danny pondered the question, wracking his brain for the answer. But the only image that came to mind - _throwing a snowball at Benz_ \- was from years before.

 _That couldn't be right._ _Could it?_

The timer beeped, signalling the end of session.

"Same time next week?" Kelly asked as she ushered him towards the door.

Danny nodded absently, his mind still whirling, refusing to accept the suggestion that he - the rule-breaker, the prankster, the guy who was always ready to try something new - could have changed so fundamentally. He was already out the door when Kelly spoke again.

"We all change, Danny. All of us. You aren't the same person today as you were five years ago, and you won't be this person in another five years. The question isn't whether we change, Danny, but who we want to become."

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Walking into the cafeteria to find a group of young, clamorous men huddled into the corner, Danny was instantly on alert. Although fights among the residents of the bunker were rare, they weren't unheard of, and the recent move from the camp to the bunker was exactly the type of situation that often increased tension. He moved swiftly across the space, nodding at the civilians interspersed among the tables. Nobody seemed concerned - _yet_.

As he drew closer, Danny could see that, whatever was happening, this wasn't a fight. Rather, the group appeared to be trying to see something hidden by the wall of bodies, their voices rising in excited chatter. Noticing Wolf standing to the side of the crowd, arms folded against his chest as he leaned against the wall, Danny relaxed slightly, knowing that Wolf would have already interfered were there a problem. Danny nodded towards the man, who managed to maneuver his way around the swarm of men without getting hit. "What's going on?"

"Cruz found his sister," Wolf explained.

 _"What?"_

All the air seemed to have left his body as Danny stared first at Wolf, and then at the group of men who, upon noticing Danny's presence, stepped back to allow him access. At the center sat Teylor, eyes red as he brushed away tears. "Maria. My little sister Maria. My nephews Manny and Christopher. They're alive."

Teylor thrust the phone at Danny, a picture of a thin, exhausted looking woman and two small boys staring back at him. It took a moment for Danny's frozen brain to realize that this wasn't an old picture. A picture from before. This was _new_. This was _current_. This was _now_.

Maria wasn't a soldier like Cameron. She didn't have a military background like Eddie.. She hadn't stumbled across a cabin in the wilderness like Jack and Bobby. Instead, she was a single mother of two small children who lived in the middle of one of the hardest hit cities in the nation, New Orleans.

 _And yet somehow she survived._

"How?" Danny could barely push the single word through his throat.

"In a convent, of all places." Teylor laughed, and Danny vaguely recalled Maria being something of a party-girl. "Someone there got the message about the vaccine distribution. Maria recognized the uniforms and asked one of the guys if they knew anything about the Nathan James. Commander Burk made the connection."

Cameron's team found her, then. Captain Chandler had decided, over multiple objections, that Cameron's trip south to Immune territory should serve two purposes. First, come up with a rescue plan for Jeffrey Michener. Second, distribute the cure in Louisiana. Danny had been one of the nay-sayers, arguing that the risk of sending a message deep in Immune territory was too great, the likelihood of armed conflict with civilians caught in the middle too high.

 _If Captain Chandler had listened to Danny, Teylor would not have found his sister_.

"Congratulations." His voice cracked and Danny swiftly cleared his throat. "Is Commander Burk bringing them north with him?"

"Yes, along with the remainder of the survivors from the convent," Teylor replied. "Apparently the Ramseys' mother was religious, so they left the church alone but the priest is worried that will change once Ned Ramsey learns about the cure."

 _The very reason why their presence was such a risk._

Thankfully Danny hadn't spoken the words out-loud, catching them before they slipped from his tongue. There was no reason to think that Maria was any more of a threat to the bunker than Eddie or Jack or Cameron. The threat was less now, really, given that they were all immune. The playing field was now level.

 _Yet the fear still lingered_.

The fear that this time would be the time they made a mistake. That they let in an Immune sympathizer. One who exposed all of them to the worst that humanity had to offer.

 _Again_.

Still, Danny knew that he wouldn't say anything. Not to Teylor, not to Cameron, and not to Captain Chandler. Everyone knew the risk. Cameron wouldn't bring Maria here if he had any suspicions about her or any of her fellow survivors. And, like all recent arrivals, Maria's group would first spend a few days or weeks at the camp to make certain that they were not being followed before being cleared to enter the bunker.

"I'll talk to Kara about assigning Maria some living space, and see if we can put you on duty at the camp when they arrive."

Thankfully Teylor hadn't noticed Danny's hesitation, his attention back on the picture before him, almost oblivious to the men around him slapping his back, a few making inappropriate comments about Maria's bust. Danny caught the eye of one young man after a particular vulgar comment, his stern face enough to have the kid stumbling an apology. Teylor noticed none of the byplay. "Thank you, Commander."

Stepping back, Danny moved towards Wolf. "You think you can keep them under control?"

Wolf nodded. "Yeah. This will die down soon enough. It gives them all hope, you know?"

Danny hesitated before responding. "It does make you think."

"Heard a few people talking about taking the cure and heading east, looking for family," Wolf continued. Although Danny hadn't heard such rumors, he wasn't surprised. The bunker might be safe, but it was also in many ways a prison.

 _A gilded cage_.

Now that the paralyzing fear of the Red Flu had been removed, people's attention was beginning to turn to other priorities, like finding out what happened to their families.

"Ward mentioned going," Danny admitted. "I've considered it myself."

"Well, if you want company, happy to tag along," Wolf said. Danny's surprise must have shown because Wolf shrugged. "No ships to Australia from Tennessee. Hell, I didn't know this state existed four years ago."

"None from Connecticut either," Danny retorted.

"One step at a time, Yank," Wolf replied, grinning. And then, as quickly as it arose, the moment was over. "Don't worry about Cruz. I'll make sure the boys don't get too out of hand."

Danny nodded, taking two steps before hesitating. "And Wolf?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

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All afternoon Danny fought the overpowering urge to check his phone. Through the debriefing with Captain Chandler where Danny officially learned what he already knew, that Cameron's mission was a success on both fronts. Through the meeting with Captain Slattery and Doctor Scott regarding her never-ending critical supply list. Through dinner with Kara and Frankie, one at which he was so distracted that Kara asked him twice if something was wrong.

He knew that there was no point. _Lightening didn't strike twice._ And yet, after hours of tossing and turning, Danny found himself creeping across the chamber, flashlight in hand, as he located his knapsack. The one that remained packed at all times, in case of an emergency. Unzipping a side pouch, Danny pulled out the thin, black rectangle, holding his breath as he waited to see if it would power on. Months had passed since the last time he took out his cell phone, wanting to look at pictures of his mother on her birthday. At the time he didn't even bother checking for a message.

 _He gave up hoping to receive one years ago._

Just as Danny became certain that the battery was dead, the screen powered up, a spinning blue wheel giving way to a picture of him and Kara on their wedding day. Both wearing their dress uniforms, Kara's discreetly pinned to accommodate her expanding stomach. Back from the time when Danny still adhered to the formalities, before he stopped believing that things would ever be normal again. Moving to his messages, Danny waited, as patiently as he could, as one minute passed. Then two. Then ten.

But nothing changed.

The last message he sent - _I have a little girl!_ \- still sat at the top of the screen. No response. No small check-mark to indicate that it was read, or even opened. He stared at the screen. Despite knowing how remote the possibility was, some small part of him had hoped for a different outcome.

 _But just because he didn't get a message, that didn't mean he couldn't send one_.

His fingers frozen over the buttons, Danny thought about what he could possibly say after four years. How could he possibly convey his scattered thoughts into a couple sentences? He began typing, fumbling for the words.

 _It's Danny._

 _I think about you everyday, hoping that you're still alive._

 _We have the cure._

 _If you get this, head west to Tennessee._

 _I'm sorry, sorry that I wasn't there when you needed me._

 _Just get me word, somehow, and I'll find you._

 _Please let me know if you're alive. Please._

Erasing one after the other, he finally pressed typed a simple question and hit send.

 _Anybody there?_

"Anything?"

Kara's quiet voice made Danny jump, and he wondered when she woke up. Glancing over his shoulder, Danny confirmed that Frankie was still asleep, sprawled on her stomach across the bed. Kara settled next to him on the hard floor, and it was only then that Danny realized how cold he was.

"No." Danny shivered, and Kara spread a blanket over their legs. "I didn't expect one. Not really. Just..."

"Finding Maria made you wonder," Kara replied softly.

"Yeah."

"Me too."

Slipping an arm around Kara's back, Danny tugged her towards him until she was sitting almost on his lap, her head rested on his chest. After rearranging the blanket to cover them again, he ran the fingers of one hand through her silky hair.

"I know that my mother is dead. I _know_ , but," Kara paused, "not knowing how..."

"Makes it worse."

Kara would never know what happened to Debbie, whether she was felled by an Immune bullet or infected by Niels, her body lost somewhere in the Virginia wilderness. And there was a very real chance that, even if he did go to Connecticut, Danny would never know what happened to his family either. Never discover where or how they died. Never even gaining confirmation that they were dead.

"If you want to look for them, I understand. I do." Kara's voice quivered but there was no hesitation in her words. This was no off-the-cuff offer, but one that she had carefully considered. One that she made consciously.

 _One that must have cost her._

Kara had already lost her mother, her best friend, and half the men and women under her command. Danny knew how much she worried every time he left the camp despite her efforts to hid her fears. And yet, she was still offering to let him go.

Danny meant every single word he wrote to his family. He would never stop thinking about them, hoping against hope that they were alive, that he would someday find them. But he wasn't willing to risk his future by dwelling in the past. "If Chandler sends a team _\- when_ Chandler sends a team - I'll go. But until then..."

"Yes?" Kara prompted as the silence grew.

"Right now I want to be here. With you. With Frankie. Our family."

"Are you sure?" Kara's voice wobbled, and Danny tugged her closer, wiping away the tears that slipped down her cheek.

"One hundred percent."


	22. Lace and Ties

_Ch. 22 - Lace and Ties_

x

Danny stepped into the chamber that served as his family's bedroom, living room, and kitchen, remembering the cabin with a pang of nostalgia. It might have been a single room but at least the windows and porch gave the illusion of space. The shiny metal walls of the bunker did the opposite, making the room somehow appear even smaller than his cabin on the Nathan James. Danny looked up, catching Kara staring.

"What?" He asked, feeling slightly self-conscious. He couldn't remember the last time he wore civvies, and the waistband of his jeans was slightly tight. Something that he didn't plan to admit to anyone.

Stopping in front of him, Kara reached up to smooth down his dark blue sweater and straighten the silver tie that he borrowed from Carlton. "I forgot how nice you look when you shave."

Danny grinned, snaking an arm around Kara and pulling her closer so he could run his relatively smooth chin along her cheek. "Benefit of unlimited water and sewer," he murmured, pressing a soft kiss at the base of her ear.

"Mmmm," Kara agreed, but any further response was cut off by their daughter, who was now dancing around them in excitement.

"You look like a prince, Daddy!" Frankie practically shrieked, her voice echoing in the small space.

"Frankie," Kara said sternly. "What level voice are you supposed to use inside?"

"Sorry, Mommy." But Frankie remained abashed for only a second, before twirling in a circle, her white lacy dress poofing out on the sides. "I'm a princess!"

Danny gave a whistle, reaching down to scoop the child up, noticing that Kara managed to find not just a dress but also white socks and dress shoes. "You look beautiful, Princess Frankie. Is that a new dress?"

He glanced at Kara, who was looking smug. "Mrs. Dowler found it. One of the Schneider girls wore it for her first communion and brought it along when they packed up. Obviously it's too small now."

Running a finger along the frilly sleeve, Danny pictured the Schneider girls packing up in the middle of the night, stuffing their backpacks with toys and party dresses, their parents too frantic to notice the lack of practical clothes until it was too late. In a way, the Schneiders were lucky. All seven members of the family survived, retreating from their small family farm in Northern Texas to an even remoter cabin in the Blue Mountains where they stayed hidden until Joshua Schneider ran into Captain Slattery on a rare venture to a populated area, looking for antibiotics for their youngest.

"I had to wear a pretty dress for the princess party," Frankie confirmed, her voice serious.

"Absolutely," Danny confirmed. He checked the time. "Are you ready to go?"

Kara scooped two packages off the table, handing them to Frankie. "Have fun, you two. I'll see you tonight."

Danny nodded. "Good luck."

Their eyes caught and Kara nodded, her shoulders drooping at the reminder of what waited for her. "At least I can catch up on paperwork."

A minute later Danny was walking down the corridor, Frankie chattering non-stop. Her excitement over Maddy and Ella's princess party was infectious, and several people along the way stopped to compliment her on her lovely gown. As they entered the cafeteria, Danny knew immediately where the birthday party was being held. Off to the left sat a table with a bright pink table cloth, a three layered white cake holding a place of honor in the middle, surrounded by plates of jerky, apples, and french fries. Frankie immediately ran over to join the small crowd of children, passing a gift to each of the twins, who were dressed in identical yellow-and-white gowns.

As he drew closer, Danny could hear Frankie chatting excitedly as she pointed to the paper bags that Frankie and Kara had decorated and used as wrapping paper. "See - that's you Maddy! And that's Ella! And me! We're all princesses!"

Nodding to Bobby, who was smiling down at his daughters, Danny gathered a cup of coffee from Bacon and planted himself against the far wall, a vantage point that allowed him to see the entire cafeteria. As more girls arrived, their outfits ranging from jeans to the frilliest flower girl dress that Danny had ever seen, Tex joined Danny against the wall.

"You draw the short end of the stick?" Tex asked, chewing on a piece of jerky.

Danny snorted. "Hardly. Kara's on babysitting duty."

Tex's smile vanished and Danny instantly regretted the poor joke. Their _rescue_ of Jeffrey Michener had gone exactly according to plan, right up to the point when Michener slit his own throat in an attempt to evade his "captors." Tex had the misfortune of being the one to find the man, barely alive, and managed to stitch him up enough for the team to get him back to the bunker, and Doctor Scott, before he bled to death. Not that saving Michener's life had done them any good. For the past two weeks, the man remained in a coma, and the likelihood of him waking dropped lower each day.

On the plus side, few knew what truly happened, ninety-nine percent of the bunker population believing that Michener was injured during the rescue. And given his condition, chances were that none of them would ever learn differently. But in order to keep tight reins on the fact that the President of the United States was a die-hard Immune who would have cursed everyone inside the bunker to death, only a few trusted individuals were allowed inside Michener's hospital room on the off-chance that he woke up. Kara and Ravit seemed to have drawn the short straws, each spending at least three days a week sitting bedside.

"Not my best timing," Tex said finally, and Danny wondered whether the man wished he had been a few minutes earlier, or a few minutes later. In some ways, Michener did all of them a favor taking himself out of the equation.

"Chandler's talking to the council about how they want to handle leadership going forward," Danny replied softly.

"I've heard rumors of an election," Tex noted. "Seems like the Commodore's name is on the top of everyone's list."

Any election would be merely a gesture. With no way to safely reach the people beyond the scope of the bunker and the camp it would be impossible to hold a nation-wide or even state-wide election until the Immune threat was completely neutralized. And they had no way of knowing whether other members of the former government survived, ones who might challenge any election. Hell, other than what they learned from Cameron Burk, they had almost no idea what was happening in the rest of the country, never mind the rest of the world. Still, discussing something as mundane as voting felt oddly comfortable to Danny. A return to the old days when a jury duty summons was enough to ruin his week.

"Doctor Scott would be a shoe-in if she wasn't so damn prickly," Danny responded.

Tex chuckled, hand rising to stroke his beard. "She's not so bad once you get through that shell of hers."

Danny choked on his coffee. "You're talking about Rachel Scott, right? Is that even possible?"

A grin played along Tex's mouth. "It is if you have the right kind of tea."

Danny filtered the information away for later. "Why are you here anyway? I didn't imagine princess parties being your style."

"I have a daughter too," Tex retorted.

Raising an eyebrow, Danny sipped his coffee, waiting. Kat was definitely _not_ the princess kind of girl.

"Ella asked me," Tex said with a shrug. "Said they needed a pirate to play Pirate Said."

"Pirate Said?"

"Pretty sure she meant Simon Said but I didn't correct her." Tex's gaze straying to the two little girls bouncing around the table, their eyes flashing, smiles bright, hair pulled back in identical brown braids. "It's nice seeing them like this. Healthy." Tex paused, the words sinking in. "Makes it feel worth it."

Danny's throat tightened. Less than three months ago these children were on death's door. Two months ago they were just settling into life at the bunker, so quiet that Danny wondered whether they could speak. And now the girls were running in circles playing pin the tail on the donkey, surrounded by other children, laughing.

 _This is what Kelly meant_.

Danny knew that there were consequences to what the twins went through. Doctor Scott still saw them weekly for check-ups and Maddy had developed asthma, most likely as a consequence to the damage to her lungs from the Red Flu. There were certain to be nightmares and tough conversations about the loss of their mother. And yet...

 _They were happy_.

Growing up Danny remembered birthday parties at restaurants and arcades and swimming pools. With fancy decorations and cakes and goodie bags. Frankie, Maddy, Ella, Tyler - none of them were old enough to have been to a birthday party before the Red Flu. None of them remembered what they were like. None of them knew what they were missing.

 _So none of them missed it._

And, really, now that Danny thought about it, he wondered how much it mattered. Was it the decorations or the cake that he remembered from his childhood? Was it the presents? Or the time with his friends and family?

"I think that's my cue," Tex said, straightening, and Danny noticed that Bobby was waving to them. Placing a large black top hat on his head, Tex went immediately into character, strutted over to the group of girls with a crack about parrots, before beginning an enthusiastic game of Pirate Said.

And watching the girls play, watching their eyes light up as Ella fell over while trying to stand on one foot too long, watching the rest of the children giggle when Tex dropped his hat on Ella's head, Danny knew the answer.

 _This life might be different._

 _But life was good._

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Danny stared down at the infant in his arms, wondering why women thought that babies were so cute when they just looking rather...pudgy. He glanced over as Ravit moved another pile of small clothes and blankets into the dresser. "Should you be doing that?"

Ravit rolled her eyes. "You and Carlton, I swear. It's been three months. I'm fine. In Israel I would already be back on the front lines."

"Good thing we aren't in Israel then," Danny replied. Although he questioned some of Ravit's assertions regarding Israeli maternity leave, there was no point in arguing. _No more internet to settle the dispute_. At the black look she gave him, Danny chuckled. "Don't blame me. Captain Chandler might be willing to ignore the frat rules out of necessity, but he has a good reason for keeping you out of the field. It's too dangerous to send you out there while Cam is still nursing."

"You Americans and your rules," Ravit retorted as she returned to her laundry. Yet there was no heat in her voice. Infant formula was one of the first modern conveniences to disappear, as people used it to supplement the diets of young children, and was now even harder to find than Doctor Scott's equipment. Until Cam was old enough to eat table scraps, his life was intrinsically tied to his mother, a fact that Ravit knew just as well as anyone. _Probably more_. "Any news from Burk?"

Cam wiggled and Danny jiggled him until his eyes closed again. "Ned Ramsey's dead. They're still chasing Sean. He holed up with some of his true believers on the submarine. Cameron is waiting for them to surface for supplies."

"If Ramsey was smart, he'd go back to England," Ravit noted.

"Which we all know he won't do," Danny retorted. "He's completely off his rocker."

Ravit smiled tightly. She paused, hands busy folding, and then she looked up. "You wish you were there?"

"With Cameron?" Danny asked, surprised by the question. From the beginning this operation was Cameron's, and Cameron's alone. After spending years hunting the Ramsey brothers, even infiltrating their camp, Cameron was determined to finish the Immunes off once and for all. Danny found the man's laser focus both honorable and discomforting. "No. So far things have gone our way but..."

"It's his white whale," Ravit finished, her voice soft.

"Yes." Danny looked back down at Cam, wondering whether he would ever know the man he was named after, or if Cameron would become one more Immune casualty. "The Immunes were a threat, but spreading the cure. That's more important."

"Carlton agrees," Ravit replied, before giving Danny a pointed look. "Not that you'll let me do that either."

Danny chuckled despite himself, Cam screwing up his face at the motion. "I told you. Chandler's rules, not mine."

"Auntie Rae!" Frankie bounded into the room like a tornado, throwing her arms around Ravit's legs. "We brought you dinner!"

Looking up, Danny saw Kara hovering in the doorway with a tray stacked with food. Her eyes flitting between Danny's face and the baby in his arms, her face carefully neutral. "I only brought enough for the three of us."

Danny shrugged as though he hadn't timed this deliberately, stopping by to see Ravit and Cam when he knew Kara and Frankie were coming by for dinner. "Don't mind me, I'll swing by the cafeteria later."

"Guess it's like riding a bicycle," Kara commented as she began dividing the food on her tray into three plates, waving towards him and Cam when Danny didn't immediately take her meaning.

"Well," after an instant's hesitation, Danny took the plunge, "never know when I might need the practice."

Kara's only reaction was a slight pause, one that he might have missed if he wasn't so focused on his wife. "You planning on becoming a manny?"

Ravit barked in laughter at the comment before crossing the room to put the remainder of Cameron's clothing in its basket. "I think I'll keep my day job. Still, you never know what the future will bring."

Kara tipped her head to the side, and he willed her to understand the words that he couldn't say. He might not be the same man he was in the Arctic, or the same man she married, or the same man who held Frankie for the first time. That man was gone forever, buried under the weight of too many days, too many decisions, too many deaths. But one thing never, ever changed. And Danny knew that it never would. At the end of the day, he wanted to come home to Kara and Frankie.

 _In the end, family was the only thing that mattered._

 _And maybe, just maybe, there was room for one more._

Kara's lips curled as she helped Frankie into her chair. "Always be prepared. Guess that's why I married a boyscout."

Danny waited until Kara was done, catching her gaze as she straightened. "Thank you for not giving up on me."

Tears glittered in Kara's eyes and she quickly blinked them away. "I love you."

His grin was instantaneous. "I love you too."

x

 _The end._

x

x

 _A/N - the conclusion of this story has been a long time coming and I want to thank those of you who stuck with me as I struggled to create a story arch and ending that felt right. With the end of The Last Ship, I want to express my thanks for the community of people who I have met through this page. You have made my journey as both a writer and reader more enjoyable. Until next time. XOXO - tmtcltb_


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